Since the signing of the cease fire on July 27, 1953 the United States of America and the Democratic Republic of North Korea have been in a technical state of war. Other than a few skirmishes and incursions across the demilitarized zone—a buffer between North and South Korea roughly aligned along the 38th Parallel, the war has not broken out again.
The last few years have seen that rocky ceasefire threatened.

NKorea reaffirms it’s at war with the United States
During 2009, dictator Kim Jong-il announced that his country no longer would abide by the Armistice that was suggested by India and agreed to by the United Nations, U.S., Russia, China and NKorea in 1953. SKorea never signed the agreement.
The NKorean leader then announced that his country considered itself fully at war with the U.S. Immediately afterward the NKoreans ramped up their weapons sales—including nuclear weapons technology and long range missile parts—to Iran and Syria. They have since expanded that to include Venezuela, Cuba and possibly Nicaragua.
Border incidents increased and gigantic tunnels running under the DMZ from NKorea into SKorean territory were discovered. And then the belligerent communist nation detonated its first atomic bomb. Although experts argued as to whether the detonation could be that of a nuclear weapon, none dismissed the second nuclear blast. The consensus was that Kim Jog-il’s regime had developed ‘the Bomb.’
Although NKorea’s population is near starvation—only the leaders, bureaucrats and one million man army is well-fed and clothed—China provides some meager subsistence in the form of food and oil. But the Chinese have been playing the West against its puppet state and has been utilizing the Korean Peninsula and especially their NKorean allies as both political and military destabilizing factors.
November of 2009 saw several naval warships from both Koreas fire at each other causing damage to each other’s vessels.
SKorean warship explodes and sinks
With tensions increasing in the region throughout 2009 and into early 2010, the news suddenly reached the world that a SKorean naval patrol ship, the Cheonan, sank off Baengnyeong island in the Yellow Sea, near the border with NKorea on Friday, the 27th of March. A close range explosion had rocked the ship. More than forty sailors were missing and later presumed dead.
Earlier that same morning, the North’s military leaders threatened SKorea and the United States with "unpredictable strikes."
At first,South Korea played down any involvement with its totalitarian neighbor to the north, but gradually incontrovertible evidence emerged that the North had deployed an armed, sophisticated mini-sub into the Yellow Sea. It launched a torpedo at the Cheonan and sunk it in an unprovoked attack.
Deepwater Horizon explodes and sinks
Twenty-four days later, on April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil drilling rig owned by the world’s largest offshore drilling contractor Transocean, and operated by British Petroleum, suddenly exploded and caught fire in the Gulf of Mexico. More than a dozen were injured and 11 assumed dead.

Still uncapped as of this writing, the bore hole is gushing oil at a rate some say is more than 210,000 gallons a day. Experts estimate the magnitude of the disaster may be much bigger and more damaging to the environment than the crude oil supertanker Exxon Valdez accident off of Alaska March 24, 1989 .
Hundreds of billions of dollars are expected to be lost, the Gulf fishing industry destroyed and oil production for the United States significantly disrupted.
The U.S. economy, still reeling in a state of severe recession, is now being assaulted on multiple fronts: the impact on the fishing industry, depleted oil production, less gasoline and diesel production, disrupted natural gas production and the mammoth cost of the long term clean-up—a task that cannot begin until the oil flow has been stopped.
Some speculate cutting off the oil flow may take up to three months creating the greatest ecological catastrophe in history, if the time line holds true.
Now as SKorea vows retaliation for NKorea’s act of war, evidence has surfaced that NKorea may have deployed the same type of armed military submersible against Deepwater Horizon.
Facts have also emerged that Hyandai Heavy Industries of Seoul, South Korea built the rig at a cost of $1 billion and despite insurance may have to write off significant losses. The oil rig explosion also has repercussions for the SKorean economy.
So with one attack, NKorea  could have dealt a serious blow to two of its greatest enemies.
According to some reports, suspicion has fallen on a NKorean merchant vessel, the Dai Hong Dan, that left a port in Cuba the night of April 18th. The merchant vessel is the class of ship that intelligence agencies have long known can be fitted for—and has carried in the past—NKorea’s two-man mini-submarines.
NKorea’s advanced mini-subs
The mini-sub, an  SSC Sang-o Class submersible, can carry two torpedoes. They have been known to be transported by several classes of their warships, disguised as merchant vessels or by their older submarines.
The older NKorean subs have been determined By the SKorean navy to be based on a former Yugoslavian design that the NKorean military adopted. Those 1990 versions were retrofitted to carry the two-man submersible and capable of sea launch.

The newest generation of the NKorean mini-sub has stealth abilities, a longer range and can stay submerged much longer than its previous versions.
According to Russian intelligence which released a report in Moscow on May 30, 2010, the NKorean vessel carried a force from the 17th Sniper Corps and departed the Cuban port of  Empresa Terminales Mambisas de La Habana April the night of April 18, 2010. Although it’s destination was Caracas, Venezuela, it changed course and steamed to within 113 nautical miles of the Deepwater Horizon rig. The mini-sub is estimated to have an effective range of 175 nautical miles.
Then, according to the Russians, the NKoreans launched one of its SSC Sang-o mini-subs (the same kind it used in the attack on the SKorean warship in the Yellow Sea). When the stealth sub reached the offshore oil platform it fired two incendiary torpedoes at the rig’s superstructure.
Obama activates DHS and orders SWAT teams to all Gulf oil rigs
‘Mr. Obama said SWAT teams were being dispatched to the Gulf to investigate oil rigs and said his administration is now working to determine the cause of the disaster.’ — CBS News, April 29, 2010.
The President’s response to an ‘accident’ raised many eyebrows. Broadcast and print news people and talk radio hosts questioned why SWAT teams were being deployed to all the oil rigs in the Gulf. And why  bring Homeland Security into the loop if the catastrophe was an error by BP personnel or an unavoidable mishap?
Although the questions (and in some quarters, criticisms) were ignored, the news media curiously stopped asked them.
Were U.S. naval vessels deployed to search for debris from one or more NKorea mini-subs?
A news report surfaced—and was quickly quashed—that several U.S. Navy salvage vessels were being rerouted towards the region of the rig. There were no follow-up reports on that story. Instead the news focused on Navy efforts to bring in oil containment booms.
Another report surfaced on the afternoon of April 30, 2010 that ‘special response units’ had been activated out of Fort Bragg. This was reported briefly on CBS radio news and it also quickly vanished.
The speculation that emerged about USN involvement revolved around retrieval of some of the NKorean mini-sub’s debris. The consensus formed that if the NKoreans had launched such an attack it would have been a suicide mission and the submariners blew themselves up with the oil rig.
Unfortunately, too much information is second-hand and too much evidence circumstantial. An infamous hoaxer’s name has been associated with one of the ‘reports,’ and that has the tendency to discredit everything, but for the fact that the President did mobilize SWAT teams to the oil rigs and called up special forces and the Navy for operations other than containment of the oil gusher.

If the federal government does find proof it might sit on the information. Politically, confirming it could stir up a hornet’s nest with China and our ally, SKorea.
An act of this magnitude by a country we are technically still in a state of war with could easily ignite a shooting war. With America already involved in two wars and the possibility constantly hovering on the horizon of a military conflict with Iran, confirmation could lead to a re-engagement with the NKoreans and precipitate a continuation of the Korean War 57 years after the Armistice.
And such a resumption of war on the Korean Peninsula at this point in history could start the dreaded third world war.
Sources
Sinking of SKorea warship, Cheonan
‘SKorea cites torpedo attack in ship sinking.’
‘NKorean mini-sub torpedoed South’s navy vessel in revenge for November attack,‘ spy claims
SKorea Warns Over Retaliation For Sunken Ship And Deaths
‘Korea tensions over claims that warship was sunk by torpedo‘
Facts about NKorea mini-subs
Satellite photo: Sang-O Class mini sub and underwater submarine pen.

‘Little subs for commandos’
North Korean Mini-sub (SSC Sang-o Class) in Drydock
NKorea’s Mini-Sub Plated With Sonar-Absorbing Tiles to Evade Detection
U.S. Navy confirms rogue nation working on underwater stealth technology
Oil rig attack?

Obama sends SWAT teams to Gulf of Mexico oil rigs 

EIN North Korean Human Rights website
EUTimes report: ‘US Orders Blackout Over North Korean Torpedoing Of Gulf Of Mexico Oil Rig‘
‘Russians report NKorean mini-sub torpedoes Gulf oil rig‘
NKorean poster depicting their missiles destroying the White House

 

RUSSIANS REPORT NORTH KOREAN MINI-SUB TORPEDOES GULF RIG

May 1, 2010 by imkane

A grim report circulating in the Kremlin today written by Russia’s Northern Fleet is reporting that the United States has ordered a complete media blackout over North Korea’s torpedoing of the giant Deepwater Horizon oil platform owned by the World’s largest offshore drilling contractor Transocean that was built and financed by South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. Ltd., that has caused great loss of life, untold billions in economic damage to the South Korean economy, and an environmental catastrophe to the United States.

On the night of April 20th the North Korean Mini Submarine manned by these “suicidal” 17th Sniper Corps soldiers attacked the Deepwater Horizon with what are believed to be 2 incendiary torpedoes causing a massive explosion and resulting in 11 workers on this giant oil rig being killed outright. Barely 48 hours later, on April 22nd , this North Korean Mini Submarine committed its final atrocity by exploding itself directly beneath the Deepwater Horizon causing this $1 Billion oil rig to sink beneath the seas and marking 2010’s celebration of Earth Day with one of the largest environmental catastrophes our World has ever seen.—The TexasFred Blog

Did North Korea sabotage Gulf oil rig, and did Obama cover it up?

By Anthony G. Martin

For the past few days bloggers have been speculating on whether or not North Korea engaged in sabotage to torpedo the Gulf oil rig, resulting in a massive explosion that sent the rig sinking into the Gulf and spilling thousands of barrels of oil that are now headed to the Gulf Coast.

This blog is an example of the story being reported, which is based upon a Kremlin report in the ‘EU Times’ which accuses North Korea of blowing up the rig in an attempt to sink a South Korean vessel in the Gulf.

At least one major mainstream media news outlet, television station WRAL in Raleigh, North Carolina, also reported the story that quotes heavily from the Russians.

The Kremlin also maintains that Barack Obama ordered an immediate news blackout, preventing reporters from gaining access to the area or discovering information that would confirm or disprove the charges.

If this story turns out to be true, then there is no doubt that Obama has engaged in a cover-up.

At this point it is impossible to verify the facts of the original report from the Kremlin in the EU Times.  With a news blackout in effect, information is scant.  Itis to be noted, however, that little information is coming from the mainstream media other than the expected, incessant drumbeat on the ‘enormous environmental disaster and the dangers of drilling for oil in the Gulf,’ etc., etc.

So far no information has been reported on why an oil rig, which is designed in such as way so as to prevent such an explosion and quick-sink into the sea, would suddenly and without explanation go up in a massive dark cloud of fire and smoke.

And there has been no report on survivors, no interviews with eyewitnesses, not even a report on the names of those who were working on the rig at the time.

In addition, Barack Obama’s actions yesterday, and his public statement concerning those actions, are, at the very least, curious.  The wording of the statement is similar to one a President would make in the event of an act of sabotage.  And the fact that Obama sent the federal SWAT team to the area fuels even more speculation that there is something more afoot here than just an oil rig spill.

It is to be remembered, however, that if the explosion is the result of an act of sabotage, the source of such an act may have absolutely nothing to do with North Korea. Environmentalist extremists have been known in the past to engage in acts of violence to get their message across and to prevent what they see as the ‘raping’ of the environment by the wicked, demented oil companies, nuclear energy companies, and others who do the demonic work of providing essential energy for the country–the energy that runs the computers from which Leftwing shills sit in their underwear in their momma’s basements, spouting extremist propaganda.

Anything the Kremlin says, particularly with regard to their Communist comrades in North Korea, can be considered suspect, although at this point it is too early to entirely discount it.

But it is more credible to posit a theory of environmentalist wackos blowing up the rig, given their history, and given this is close to ‘Earth Day,’ and that this is‘May Day,’ and that Obama and the Democrats who are now denouncing expanded oil exploration in the Gulf need a convenient excuse not only to back off from Obama’s plan for limited expansion of oil drilling but to stop it entirely,as Democrat Senator Bill Nelson from Florida is now proposing.

All the more reason for Obama to send in the SWAT team to secure the area, initiate a news blackout, and cover up what really happened at the rig site.

 

N. Korea’s Mini-Sub Plated With Sonar-Absorbing Tiles to Evade Detection
Chosun Ilbo ^ | 04/07/10 | Ryu Yong-won

Posted on Tue Apr 06 2010 18:38:40 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time) by TigerLikesRooster

North Korean Mini-sub (SSC Sang-o Class) in Drydock

N. Korea’s Mini-Sub Plated With Sonar-Absorbing Tiles to Evade Detection

Ryu Yong-won

N. Korea’s Shark class and Yugo class mini-submarines are plated with sonar-absorbing tiles to evade detection by our side, and some Yugo class mini-subs carry 533mm heavy torpedoes, it has been revealed.

Intelligence sources said on Apr. 6 that, according to investigation by relevant authorities regarding N. Korea’s (mini-)submarine, torpedoes and mines, N. Korea obtained Russian technology with which they developed sonar-absorbing tiles and plated their Yugo class mini-submarines with them. The tiles are made of chlorinated rubber with silicon mixed in. N. Korea is said to have had trouble developing adhesive which would glue tiles to mini-subs.

In addition to 85-ton model which was captured in ’98 off the coast of Sokcho, Yugo class mini-submarine also features other models such as 60-ton and 50-ton varieties. Yugo 1 model, the smallest of them, is basically a human torpedo with one or two crew(s,) designed to mount suicide attack on ships such as a U.S. carrier. Yugo class mini-submarines can stay underwater for 4~5 hours, and due to (insufficient) battery capacity, cannot move at high speed. Semi-submersible vessel can navigate at 40 knot(84km per hour) on the surface, but the problem is that its Swedish engine makes loud noise.

Underwater munitions such as torpedoes and mines are made at ‘Dae-an Electric Enterprise’ under Kang-sun Steel located near Nampo, the sources said. N. Korea was able to develop ‘bubble jet’ mines in 90’s, and have been working on development of indigenous ‘bubble jet’ torpedoes.

/snip

N. Korea imported acoustic torpedoes from Russia in 90’s, which homes in on the propeller sound of a ship, and have been making improvement on it.

/end my excerpts