Hidden Harmonies China Blog

Lately we have been spending a lot of time discussing Korea. Yesterday I had a chance to discuss this issue with one of my best friends over lunch. This post is essentially a distillation of that conversation.

There are few more important points people should bear in mind when thinking about what is happening in that region. The DPRK indeed bombed an inhabited area killing two civilians and two marines. Even if the ROK was wrong in shelling into clearly DPRK territorial waters, an equal retaliation could have been to shell a ROK controlled territory not occupied by people. Beyond that is indeed overboard.

On this specific incident alone, the DPRK escalated the tension. On any form of escalation, I think it deserves condemnation. Some of you have expressed a need to condemn, and I agree in this context. The world community ought to be precise about that.

We also should bear in mind too ROK subsequently fired into DPRK in response to the Yeonpyeong shelling, and we still have no information where the ROK hit; casualties or no. But if this went after people and property, it should equally be condemned.
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DPRK shells ROK held island (China Daily)

As America enters this weekend of Thanksgiving celebration, North Korea’s recent shelling of Yeonpyeong Island (currently held by South Korea) will be widely discussed among family and friends. Thanksgiving is a U.S. holiday to commemorate help the Massachusetts based Wampanoag Native Americans in the 1600’s provided to the newly arrived European pilgrims to cultivate the land and fish, saving them from starvation. The darker truth was of course the Wampanoag being virtually wiped out by the pilgrims eventually. That darkness is still with us today, because if we pay any attention to the headlines in the U.S. in the last few days since the shelling (and killing of four South Koreans), it appears there are still many, perhaps mainly the U.S. media, who are preparing the American public for support of an eventual North Korea invasion.
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