South Korean Navy Ship Sinking in Disputed Waters

<div itemprop="articleBody">  SEOUL, South Korea  A South Korean Navy patrol ship sank near the disputed western maritime border with North Korea early Saturday after suffering damage to its hull, South Korea</div> military said. <br /> <center> <script async="" src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script> <!-- Mommy D --> <ins class="adsbygoogle" data-ad-client="ca-pub-3501146869857974" data-ad-slot="7561278847" style="display: inline-block; height: 280px; width: 336px;"></ins> <script> (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); </script> </center> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBUBfm3T90gXFjw-TXZVrbsMnFbLWS4mAablzVZ_27PYjIqMlE0cmoJHSTQXcbmv9hSXGwjpMhPuK6xcOhhpb0ngoWXdEWKMGkG0w0ltloJCsaLQZDdEhYToyb-8j5rhZ-aYnhHk_sZSM/s1600/SINGking.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBUBfm3T90gXFjw-TXZVrbsMnFbLWS4mAablzVZ_27PYjIqMlE0cmoJHSTQXcbmv9hSXGwjpMhPuK6xcOhhpb0ngoWXdEWKMGkG0w0ltloJCsaLQZDdEhYToyb-8j5rhZ-aYnhHk_sZSM/s1600/SINGking.jpg" width="320" /></a></div> <div itemprop="articleBody"> The sinking immediately raised suspicions about the possible involvement of North Korea, whose navy has skirmished with South Korean ships in the waters off the Korean Peninsula. But South Korean officials said it was not clear whether the ship had been attacked by the North. </div> <div itemprop="articleBody"> South Korea’s president, Lee Myung-bak, ordered an emergency meeting of security-related cabinet ministers at an underground bunker at his office, the Blue House, in Seoul, and he ordered the military to focus on rescue efforts, according to South Korean news reports. </div> <div itemprop="articleBody"> “It is premature at this stage to discuss the cause of the sinking,” said a presidential spokeswoman, Kim Eun-hye. “It has not been determined whether this incident is related to North Korea.” </div> <div itemprop="articleBody"> By early Saturday morning, 58 of the ship’s 104 crew members had been rescued, Commodore Lee Ki-shik of the South Korean Navy said during a news briefing. More navy ships were headed to the scene to assist in the rescue efforts. </div> <div itemprop="articleBody"> The commodore did confirm reports in the South Korean news media that another South Korean ship had fired warning shots around the time the first ship was damaged after detecting an unidentified object on its radar. He cautioned that the object could have been a flock of birds. </div> <div itemprop="articleBody"> “All we can say for now is that one of our patrol ships is sinking after it suffered a rupture in its bottom created by an unidentified cause,” said a spokesman at the South Korean Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He spoke on the condition of anonymity because South Korea had not made a formal announcement. </div> <div itemprop="articleBody"> The ship was in the Yellow Sea near Baengnyeong, a South Korean island eight miles from the North Korean coast and 120 miles from the South Korean mainland. </div> <div itemprop="articleBody"> The waters in the disputed western sea near the two Koreas make up the most volatile section of the border between North and South Korea and were the site of naval clashes in 1999 and 2002. </div> <div itemprop="articleBody"> North Korea rejects a maritime border unilaterally drawn by the United Nations at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War and defended by the South Koreans. </div> <div itemprop="articleBody"> In November, naval patrol boats from the North and South exchanged fire after a North Korean boat crossed that sea border, called the northern-limit line. </div>

KFM News South Korean Trending News South Korean Navy Ship Sinking in Disputed Waters

 SEOUL, South Korea  A South Korean Navy patrol ship sank near the disputed western maritime border with North Korea early Saturday after s...

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