Friday, November 26, 2010

North/South Korea: Fresh Artillery Shots were heard Friday on South Korean Island of Yeonpyeong

North/South Korea:
North Korea continues to play this dangerous game of theirs that has so far killed four S. Koreans during Tuesday’s artillery attack and killed another46 sailors back in March when they torpedoed a S. Korean Naval Ship. Today... fresh artillery shots were heard on the S. Korean Island of Yeonpyeong... U.S. Aircraft Carrier Group entering Korean Seas...
Friday, November 26, 2010

U.S. Navy file photo of USS George Washington by Mass Communication Specialist Adam K. Thomas
* The Washington Post brings us the following early this Friday morning and this AP report starts off like this... Fresh artillery shots were heard Friday on the tense South Korean island of Yeonpyeong, three days after it was devastated by a North Korean attack and hours after Pyongyang warned that the peninsula was on the brink of war... The blasts happened just after the top U.S. commander in South Korea, Gen. Walter Sharp, toured Yeonpyeong Island in a show of solidarity with Seoul and to survey damage from Tuesday's hail of North Korean artillery fire that killed four people...
Read the full report at link below...
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* RTTNews.com reports... The Chinese government has finally begun efforts aimed at defusing tensions on the Korean Peninsula through parleys with the US, South Korea and North Korea, reports said on Friday...
Read this report in full at link below...
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* CSMonitor.com has the following report posted up on their website today and it goes in part like this ... The joint exercises set for Sunday have provoked a predictably confrontational response from North Korea. Its state news agency promised that North Korea’s Army is “getting ready to give a shower of dreadful fire and blow up the bulwark of the enemies.”... The agency further warned, according to The New York Times, that the “situation on the Korean Peninsula is inching closer to the brink of war due to the reckless plan of those trigger-happy elements to stage war exercises” - exercises, the agency emphasized, that are targeted against the North...
Read the rest at link below...
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* The New York Times reports... China engaged in a flurry of diplomatic activity Friday, three days after a North Korean artillery attack on South Korean civilians, but its most public message was directed at the United States, which is about to begin joint exercises with South Korea’s navy... In a statement from its Foreign Ministry, China warned against “any military acts in our exclusive economic zone without permission,” the state-run Xinhua news agency reported Friday. But virtually all the waters to the west of the Korean Peninsula, where the United States said the exercises would take place, lie within that zone, and American naval traffic is far from uncommon there... Adding yet more tension to the situation, North’s state-run media also warned that the maneuvers could push the Korean Peninsula closer to “the brink of war.”...
Read the rest of the report at link below...
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Naval Readiness Exercise Announced
Story Number: NNS10112401 - Release Date: 11/24/2010
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By 7th Fleet Public Affairs Office
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YOKOSUKA, Japan (NNS) -- The USS George Washington carrier strike group will join Republic of Korea (ROK) naval forces in the waters west of the Korean peninsula from Nov. 28 to Dec. 1 to conduct the next exercise in the series announced at the 2+2 meetings in July.
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This exercise is defensive in nature. While planned well before yesterday's unprovoked artillery attack, it demonstrates the strength of the ROK-U.S. Alliance and our commitment to regional stability through deterrence. It is also designed to improve our military interoperability.
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U.S. Navy ships scheduled to participate include the USS George Washington (CVN 73) with an embarked carrier air wing (CVW 5), USS Cowpens (CG 62), USS Lassen (DDG 89), USS Stethem (DDG 63), USS Fitzgerald (DDG 62).
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U.S. and allied operations are built on an already strong foundation of cooperation and this exercise is intended to further enhance interoperability. The U.S. and ROK forces will conduct air defense and surface warfare readiness training.
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The U.S. Navy routinely operates in the waters off the Korean peninsula and has conducted numerous operations and exercises in this area. In October 2009 the George Washington strike group conducted similar operations in the international waters west of the Korean peninsula. U.S. aircraft carriers frequently visit the Korean peninsula and conduct port visits in Busan; such as USS George Washington in 2010, USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74)in March 2009, USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76), USS Nimitz (CVN 68) and USS George Washington in 2008.
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For a list of participating ROK forces, please contact ROK Joint Chiefs of Staff Public Affairs.
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For more news from Commander, U.S. 7th Fleet, visit www.navy.mil/local/c7f/
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North Korea: Peninsula on 'Brink of War'
This video posted on YouTube AssociatedPress
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AubreyJ.........

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