I held off commenting on this till more info was out there:
South Korea is scrambling to locate at least 46 South Korean military personnel missing after a one of the South’s naval patrol vessels sank in a tense maritime area disputed by North Korea. Seoul is investigating what caused the incident, but holding off for now on blaming the North.
South Korean officials say rescuing sailors remains their top priority. One hundred four South Korean navy personnel were on board the patrol ship in waters west of the Korean peninsula Friday night when it was apparently damaged by an explosion and sank.
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak called an emergency meeting of top security officials Saturday, for the second time in a 12-hour period. South Korean authorities say they are investigating “all possibilities” as to why the ship went down, including the scenario that the ship was attacked by North Korea.
This is going to get interesting, if the NORK’s were involved, what will the reaction be? Could it have been a mine? Or an internal explosion? No one is yet sure.
I’m thinking mine since it’s hard to conceive of a plant casualty that can blow such a large hole in the ship and sink it so quickly that 46 can’t make it off. It could be an own goal but I can’t recall the last time a magazine exploded in peacetime. My question would be if it was a deliberate drifting mine release or if a moored mine broke free from a barrier field somewhere.