Mick Hartley

It's hardly surprising that initial reports of the sinking of that South Korean ship concentrated on the North Korean connection: there've been at least three clashes in the area in the past 11 years; it's near the Northern Limit Line, the maritime border designated by the UN at the signing of the 1953 armistice to halt fighting in the Korean War but never accepted by North Korea; and the North Koreans have recently been firing artillery shells into the sea round there. Then there's that business with the other South Korean ship firing shots towards an unidentified vessel. And anyway, it's North Korea, it's the kind of thing they might do: a random act of violence just to keep the tension up, remind everyone they're there, take the focus off their internal problems. A government that relies for its legitimacy on the constant threat of attack from the US imperialists and their stooges in Seoul has a vested interest in stirring trouble.

The South Korean government have been playing the connection down, though, refusing to get drawn, focusing on the rescue operation. The Chinese Xinhua agency are now reporting that they're discounting DPRK invovement.

Well…whatever the subsequent investigation may reveal – torpedo, mine, or just a mysterious on-board explosion (and how often do mysterious on-board explosions happen?) – it's not hard to understand why the South Korean government would want to take this line. It gives them time to think about any response, and be sure of their case. And, really, what can they do? They're already in a state of frozen war with the North. They're not about to launch retaliatory air strikes. They could cut off all aid, but then you have the same old problem: it's the leaders you want to punish, not the people, and with no way to the people except via the leaders, that's just not possible.

So we wait and see, but it must already be too late for the 40-odd lost sailors.