The South Korean government, aided by experts from the U.S., Australia, the U.K., Canada and Sweden, alleges that a North Korean midget submarine fired a 500-lb. torpedo at the 1,200-ton Cheonan on March 26, killing 46 South Korean seamen. But China and Russia have echoed the doubts expressed by some scientists over the official finding. While the official investigation, as detailed recently by U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Thomas Eccles, chief engineer of the Naval Sea Systems Command, harnesses several forensic techniques to eliminate all options except for a North Korean torpedo, skeptics view that logic as a house of cards that falls apart when evidence from the Cheonan is scrutinized closely.
"To me, this challenges the integrity of science," Seung-Hun Lee, a physicist at the University of Virginia, tells TIME. "They say they reached these conclusions that have enormous consequences on the political and international stage. As a scientist and scholar, I felt it was my duty to check their conclusion." Lee says bluntly that the government's conclusions are "absurd."
The residues that the governments say were caused by the blast "have nothing to do with the explosion, but are just aluminum hydroxide that can be naturally formed by corrosion when aluminum is exposed to water for a long time," Lee says. He adds that he doesn't know why Seoul and Washington would invent such a scenario to explain the sinking. "That's a political thing that's beyond me," he says.
J.J. Suh, a professor and director of Korea Studies at Johns Hopkins University's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C., also doesn't believe the government's story. A 500-lb. torpedo would have generated at least 5,000 lb. per sq. in. of pressure on the Cheonan's hull. "The bottom of the ship does not betray any sign of being exposed to that kind of shock wave," he says. "The rest of the ship doesn't either ... even a florescent light bulb in the exposed cut area survived the explosion intact." Lee and Suh have sent a letter to the U.N. Security Council seeking a new investigation into the sinking because of their belief that the official probe is "riddled with inconsistencies."
But Eccles is sticking to the investigation's key finding that a North Korean torpedo sank the Cheonan. He was dispatched to South Korea following the sinking to devote his considerable technical expertise - he has a degree in electrical and mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology - to help figure out what happened. "I can tell you conclusively that an explosion that correlates to a 250-kg maritime weapon at a placement that's ideal for breaking this ship occurred in the same place and I think at the same time as not only objective recorded information ashore, but where and when a piece of torpedo - which is a perfect correlation of a North Korean weapon of the exact same size - was found," Eccles told reporters recently
By: Brant
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To the “outside” world intellectuals who don’t read Korean,
This is a remarkable story of people – the governed(although they are in theory supposed to be the actual governor in democracy), not their government - making difference in the world (history).
1. Compare and contrast.
“More enlightened” American people, Congress and media; Bush; WMD; War (and huge suffering),
(http://whitehouser.com/war/CIA-confirms-Bush-WMD-lie )
and,
“Supposedly less so enlightened” Korean people; Korean President Lee; Cheonan; prevention of War (so far).
(I am including among ‘the Korean people’ the Korean-Americans.)
2. Also remarkable is that the “inside” Korean people braved the government prosecution.
Caveat: Under the current South Korean regime, South Korean citizens can be sued for defamation by their own government officials, and defamation in South Korea is a crime (as well as a civil offense) prosecuted by the government’s own centrally controlled national prosecutors who selectively choose or choose not whom to prosecute.
Recently, Shin Sang-cheol, “an expert placed on the JIG [Joint Investigation Group] by” the National Assembly, got (criminally) sued for defamation by a government official for expressing disagreement over the current South Korean regime’s version of the Cheonan Incident. (http://www.zimbio.com/Mizuho+Fukushima/articles/BvIMjqn_oLw/South+Korean+Investigation+Team+Member+Mr )
(South Korean people’s firsthand knowledge about the pro-government polls is that they are ridiculously overinflated.
A proof: war-fear-mongering South Korean President Lee Myung-bak got unexpectedly humiliated on the June 2 election by the “Supposedly less so enlightened” Korean people,
when “survey conducted by the major daily [pro-government]Dong-A Ilbo and the Korea Research Center from May 24 to 26[7-days-before] forecast[ed] that Oh would beat Han by 20.8 percent.”
Actual election result: 0.6 percent(=”47.4 percent”-”46.8 percent.”)
Source: http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2921960 )
3. A list of early English publications on Questions on the Cheonan Incident and the Power of South Korean Netizens can be found at http://korea.true.ws (by LetsTry Reason) and newer writings at http://letstryreason.wordpress.com .
Also, look at: “the U.S, South Korea, the U.K, Canada and Australia, but not Sweden [NOT Sweden], contributed to the second-statement findings [claiming that North Korea might be guilty]” – “Five reasons why the the JIG’s 5-page statement cannot be considered scientific and objective, nor … ‘international’”
http://japanfocus.org/-JOHN-MCGLYNN/3372 ;
“Russian Probe Sees No North Korea Hand In Cheonan Sinking! Russia Says Sea Mine Sunk Cheonan”
http://socioecohistory.wordpress.com/2010/07/28/russian-probe-sees-no-north-korea-hand-in-cheonan-sinking/ ;
http://willyloman.wordpress.com/2010/06/30/pcc-772-cheonan-south-korean-government-admits-the-deception-and-then-lies-about-it/ ;
http://nature.com/news/2010/080710/full/news.2010.343.html ;
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-korea-torpedo-20100724,0,4196801,full.story
media.
4. Compare and contrast.
9/11; Al-Qaeda; brags We did it(, was not wrong, not sorry about it and we will do it again).
Cheonan; North Korea; brags We didn’t do it (therefore, presumably, was wrong, sorry about it and we will not do it). (Why the difference?)
Crime and punishment. If we are taking consequentialist moral philosophy, and if the utilitarian utility of punishment is to prevent future crime, then punishment serves little or no purpose (maybe to others but not)to North Korea who says ‘We didn’t do it,’ because either (a) the North didn’t do it, therefore the punishment will be outrageous injustice,
or (b) the North did do it, but ‘We didn’t do it’ basically implies ‘We will not do it.’
(This particular ‘it’ hardly gives the North any payoff.)
*If you don’t get scared of us, how can We become the terrorist, and if you don’t know We did it, how can you get scared of us?
5. Representative democracy is not pure democracy. (Pure)Direct democracy of a nation-size is now (or becoming) possible, through recent developments in computer science and technology, making secure private Internet-voting, democratic online discussions, cheap instantaneous micro referendum and freedom of choice to vote directly on an issue or use an agent possible.
The science (computer science) should finally make the people, the governed, the actual de facto governor in democracy.
6. I take this honor of hereby formally asking the folks in Norway to consider awarding a Nobel Peace Prize to the “Supposedly less so enlightened” Korean people including myself,
who in early days, among various activities, proposed the “outside” world contact initiative for the Cheonan peace, providing email addresses of all the foreign embassies in Korea, U.N., Hillary, Obama, and the foreign media.
TL-DR
Man, that's Hairog-quality screedism right there. Wow.
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