Breaking: South Korean navy ship sinking near North Korean border

Nothing’s confirmed yet, but this does not sound good:  A South Korean navy ship with about 100 personnel on board is sinking off the west coast near North Korea, possibly due to a torpedo attack, reports say. The ship was sinking near Baengnyeong island, Yonhap news agency quoted navy officials as saying. It also said ...

By , a former associate editor at Foreign Policy.

Nothing's confirmed yet, but this does not sound good

Nothing’s confirmed yet, but this does not sound good

A South Korean navy ship with about 100 personnel on board is sinking off the west coast near North Korea, possibly due to a torpedo attack, reports say.

The ship was sinking near Baengnyeong island, Yonhap news agency quoted navy officials as saying.

It also said another South Korean ship had fired shots toward an unidentified ship in the North. The involvement of North Korea has not been confirmed.

North Korea threatened the South with "unprecedented nuclear strikes" this morning over reports that Soeul was preparing for instability in the North. Such threats are hardly unusual, but if North Korea is indeed behind the sinking, that would be the biggest escalation of the conflict in years. With more reports of economic distress and internal strife coming out of the Hermit Kingdom, Kim Jong Il may have bargained that it was time to pick an international fight.

Joshua Keating was an associate editor at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @joshuakeating

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