{"id":384,"date":"2010-03-26T15:45:00","date_gmt":"2010-03-26T19:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.intuitiveinvestor.com\/web\/?p=384"},"modified":"2018-08-20T15:46:59","modified_gmt":"2018-08-20T19:46:59","slug":"the-sinking-of-a-south-korean-naval-vessel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jasonapollovoss.com\/web\/2010\/03\/26\/the-sinking-of-a-south-korean-naval-vessel\/","title":{"rendered":"The sinking of a South Korean naval vessel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good afternoon folks!<\/span><\/p>\n

Today saw the sinking of a South Korean naval vessel\u00a0near disputed North\/South Korean territorial waters.\u00a0 So far the information is sketchy.\u00a0 However, what is known is that the vessel sank rapidly and that many of its 104 crew members are feared dead.\u00a0 Another South Korean naval vessel is said to have returned fire at an unidentified vessel, but this is so far unconfirmed.\u00a0 If it turns out that North Korea intentionally fired on a South Korean naval ship and sank it, this would be considered an act of war and would be massively significant.<\/span><\/p>\n

First of all, Seoul, South Korea is home to 25% of the South Korean population.\u00a0 Unfortunately, Seoul sits within easy striking distance of North Korea, so should war ensue casualties would likely be catastrophic.\u00a0 It is generally believed that South Korea has a superior military force and would win a war, but at tremendous cost.<\/span><\/p>\n

Second, North Korea is a confirmed nuclear power with a reputation for unpredictable leadership.\u00a0 It is unknown what North Korea’s predisposition is to use its nuclear arsenal in any potential war.\u00a0 It could get very ugly obviously.<\/span><\/p>\n

Third, the United States has 25,000 troops stationed in South Korea, so an attack on South Korea is, by proxy, an attack on the United States.\u00a0 It is uncertain what the United States’ position would be in any Korean peninsular war.\u00a0 The U.S. is already fighting to major wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as a potential third war in Iran.\u00a0 If the U.S. is drawn into a conflict it will draw U.S. resources away from its other two wars, as well as from other geopolitical hotspots such as Russia, Iran and Yemen.<\/span><\/p>\n

Four, the financial market response has so far been tepid.\u00a0 I am not sure why because any military engagement in South Korea would likely be one of the most important global stories in the forthcoming decade.<\/span><\/p>\n

I will be keeping a very close eye on the situation for any developments.\u00a0 For now, let’s hope that the cause of the sinking was an onboard explosion and not a North Korean attack.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jason<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Good afternoon folks! Today saw the sinking of a South Korean naval vessel\u00a0near disputed North\/South Korean territorial waters.\u00a0 So far the information is sketchy.\u00a0 However, what is known is that the vessel sank rapidly and that many of its 104 crew members are feared dead.\u00a0 Another South Korean naval vessel is said to have returned […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonapollovoss.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonapollovoss.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonapollovoss.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonapollovoss.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonapollovoss.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jasonapollovoss.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonapollovoss.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonapollovoss.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonapollovoss.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}