Korea ( South & North ) 01 (May 08 - Nov 10)

[Aspellian]

Wonder why will still people live on that island??

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... years.html

By Peter Foster in Beijing 8:16AM GMT 23 Nov 2010
But today's violence, which saw dozens of shells rain down on their homes and set more than 60 buildings on fire, is the most serious act of aggression against civilians from Pyongyang since the bombing of Korean Air flight 858 in 1987. It was the first artillery strike on South Korean soil since 1953.

As plumes of black smoke billowed from the coastline of the island, South Korea moved onto its highest peacetime emergency footing, returning fire on North Korea and scrambling F-16 fighter jets to the scene.

Yeonpyeong Island, which spans just three square miles and was once claimed by North Korea in the 1970s, has always been a point of tension because of its location near the Northern Limit Line, the sea border between the two countries.

The residents are used to acts of North Korean aggression. In June, North Korea responded to joint military drills by the United States and South Korea in the Yellow Sea by firing 130 artillery shells towards Yeonpyeong Island. However, only ten of these actually cross the Northern Limit Line and none caused any damage, landing in the sea.
Today's attack also appears to have been in response to military exercises in the vicinity. "We were carrying out naval, air force and army training exercises and they seem to have opened fire in objection," a military official told YTN, a South Korean television station.

The attack came as Stephen Bosworth, the United States envoy on North Korea, departed from Seoul for Beijing. Mr Bosworth is attempting to find a consensus to restart the six-party talks between China, South Korea, Russia, Japan, the United States and North Korea on the rogue state's denuclearisation.

It also comes as North Korea prepares for a change of leader, with Kim Jong-un, the third son of Kim Jong-il, widely expected to take over from his 68-year-old father. Analysts have noted that the last handover of power in North Korea was also accompanied by a series of aggressive acts intended to strengthen the new leader's relationship with the army. An internal power struggle in North Korea, between hardliners and reformists, is also thought to be underway, and could have sparked military action.
The attack, coupled with the unveiling over the weekend of a new light water nuclear reactor, equipped with a startlingly accomplished array of centrifuges, underlines North Korea's continuing intransigence in the face of international pressure on it to disarm and cooperate in a peace process.

Eight years ago, the Second Battle of Yeonpyeong saw 13 North Korean sailors and four South Korean sailors killed as gunboats traded fire across the Northern Limit Line. The 85mm guns fired by the North Korean ships were loud enough to rattle the windows of residents on the island, according to news reports. Three years before than, a further 30 sailors died in the first battle of Yeonpyeong.

Aware of the precarious situation of the island, South Korea maintains one of its newest class of "patrol killer" guided-missile ships, designed for close-range naval skirmishes, nearby.

Meanwhile, the island itself is equipped with 19 fully-stocked bomb shelters, into which panicked residents fled today. Lined with tank traps and trenches, it is permanently ready for war, and residents conduct monthly air raid drills and keep gas masks in their homes.

South Korea has often speculated that the North will attack Yeonpyeong in order to strengthen its hand in any negotiations with the West.

Today's attack, however, coming after the sinking of the South Korean Cheonan warship with the loss of 46 sailors, may tip the tensions between the two countries over the edge. However, there are few immediate military responses available to the South. The North Korean gun posts which opened fire today are well-entrenched, and difficult to attack.

[winston]

TOL:-

It's so funny to see the lemmings run around and the bears coming out of a long hibernation because they have been dead wrong over the past few months..

GS had a conference call last night at 8.30pm and invited a Korean 'expert" to analyse the situation for you.

And this morning, there were a few parrots on TV, trying to analyse the situation, as if you can analyse the behaviour of a mad man:-
1) Someone call this to be a one-off event
2) Another called it a first in the series of provocation
3) One looked at Hu's coming trip to the US
4) Another talked about the change in power in China when Hu steps down
5) Another talked about the change in power in North Korea
6) A perma bear was calling you to sell everything
7) An optimist was talking about a buying opportunity
etc..

Some serious analysis .

To me, it's just the blind leading the blind

And I would say that the North Koreans probably bought a lot of puts before they fired onto the island. And what is the FBI and the SEC gonna do about this Insider trading ?

[winston]

On CNBC: The Chinese considered the North Koreans an embarrassment especially when they have worked so hard to get some face from the Olympics, Expo and Asian Games.

=================================

China not consulted before island barrage

KOREAS ON THE BRINK Pyongyang's deadly shelling of a South Korean border island apparently took Beijing by surprise and once again put China in a diplomatic tight spot, experts say.


Source: SCMP

[Aspellian]

TOL:-

And I would say that the North Koreans probably bought a lot of puts before they fired onto the island. And what is the FBI and the SEC gonna do about this Insider trading ?

I especially like the idea of NKoreans buying Puts on Kospi, simple and easy money to finance their economy, the NKoreans traders are probably all full-time Artillery Gunners! - THUMBS UP for Winston!!

[winston]

And right in the middle of the conflict, the KOSPI is only down less than 1%.

So why are you selling when right in ground zero, they are not selling ?

Because you were influenced by some long time bear ?

[behappyalways]

China is holding Asian Games and would not want anything to spoil the event.....Looking at how the Kims from North Korea have to visit China 2 times before the succession, we can see the hold on North Korea by China. If the Kims go overboard, China gonna 'punish' them by not sending them the food and oil.

The Kims are having a good life drinking cognacs and women while the ordinary North Koreans are suffering from hunger. The Kims aren't stupid to risk what they have now...just acting belligerent

[winston]

And the Lyxor Korea ETF is up 3% in Singapore now.

Maybe it dropped too much yesterday, trying to anticipate events and nothing happened

[winston]

On CNBC:-

And did you wonder why they choose to bomb an island with only 1300 people ?

Why not cross the DMZ and see who will get hurt ?

China is fed up of being a nanny to a spoilt brat

[behappyalways]

A person drinking cognac and hugging pretty women is not going to risk war and kill himself.....only a person with no cognac to drink and no women to hug would do that........hoping that he gets 30 virgins in heaven


But don't be surprise one day North Korea may raise the stake by attacking and occupying a small non-inhabited island in order to demand for yet more cognacs ^^

[winston]

11 Reasons Why North Korea Is The Most Bizarre Nation On Earth

#1 The first "Great Leader" of North Korea, Kim Il-Sung, is deeply revered in North Korea. In fact, there are over 500 statues of Kim Il-sung scattered throughout the country. Many Koreans apparently believe that Kim Il-Sung actually created the world.

#2 It is said that hanging up pictures of Kim Il-Sung is compulsory for every household in North Korea.

#3 Millions of North Korean citizens have literally starved to death over the past 10 years.

#4 The North Korean constitution actually guarantees freedom of speech and freedom of the press.

#5 It has been reported that during times of extreme hunger in North Korea, cannibalism is quite common. Several years ago the Washington Post shared what one 29-year-old female defector told them about what is going on inside the country....

"When one is very hungry, one can go crazy. One woman in my town killed her 7-month-old baby, and ate the baby with another woman."
The sad thing is that the 29-year-old female defector didn't even consider what she had seen to be wrong....

"I can't condemn cannibalism. Not that I wanted to eat human meat, but we were so hungry. It was common that people went to a fresh grave and dug up a body to eat meat. I witnessed a woman being questioned for cannibalism. She said it tasted good."

#6 In 1987, North Korea began construction on the Ryugyong Hotel, which would have been the tallest hotel in the world if it had been finished on schedule in 1989.

Instead, construction of the bizarre 105-story skyscraper that somewhat resembles a pyramid was suspended in 1992, and the unfinished structure was just a massive concrete shell towering over Pyongyang completely empty for the next 16 years.

Work began once again on the project in 2008, and it is anticipated that it will finally be completed in 2012.

#7 One of North Korea's greatest "tourist attractions" is the Pueblo - a U.S. naval vessel that the North Koreans captured from "the imperialist Americans" back in 1968.

#8 According to North Korean media, Kim Jong-il is a phenom at just about everything. It is claimed that he shot 38 under par (including 11 holes-in-one) the first time he ever played golf.

#9 Christians are slaughtered in some of the most brutal ways imaginable in North Korea. The following is just one example.....

#10 A few years ago when China was sending humanitarian aid into North Korea the North Koreans decided that they would just start keeping the trains as well. The Chinese crews were sent back over the border on foot.

#11 A song entitled "No Motherland Without You" was written specifically for Kim Jong-il and is one of the most popular songs in North Korea. It is regularly sung by the North Korean military.


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