How the Cheonan Really Sank: What Do the Koreas Do Now? -- Time Magazine
On a chilly spring evening late last March, a South Korean naval ship called the Cheonan was conducting routine exercises in waters just off the coast of a sparsely populated island in what the Koreans call the West Sea (better known as the Yellow Sea), just 10 kilometers from North Korean land. It was just before 9:30, and for most of the ship's 104 crew members, work was done for the day. Some sat in the ship's mess chatting; others were exercising in a small gym. A few had already headed to their bunks for a night's rest. The ship's commanding officer, Choi Won Il, had retired to his cabin for the night and was checking email.
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My Comment: I have lost count on the many governments that now want this affair to go away .... but it cannot go away. The evidence is now being prepared to be published, and what is being leaked right now is probably being done to preempt critics who have their own theories (but no evidence) on what happened but who are looking for an audience to push their ideas.
Among my own Korean contacts (both family and friends), they tell me that there is overwhelming sentiment in South Korea that this was a North Korean provocation .... an implicit threat from the North that if they do not receive financial and economic assistance from the South .... low intensity warfare will be the result. If true .... present U.S. - South Korean war games may evolve into something else.