"Jet that crashed in China was possibly N. Korean; Reports speculate pilot was defecting" by Keith B. Richburg, Washington Post | August 19, 2010
BEIJING — A jet believed to be a military fighter crashed into a fruit field in northeastern China Tuesday, and China’s official state-run news agency said the aircraft might have come from North Korea.
The pilot was killed in the crash, according to the Xinhua News Agency report and an eyewitness interviewed by telephone. Two bungalows were also destroyed, although the witness, and the sketchy Chinese news agency report, said no one on the ground was injured.
Some reports from South Korea quoted unidentified people in Seoul as saying the pilot may have been a North Korean flying over Chinese airspace while trying to defect to Russia. A defection by a North Korean pilot in a fighter jet would be highly unusual and a potential embarrassment to the regime of Kim Jong Il, at a time when he is believed to be trying to pave the way for his son, Kim Jong Eun, to succeed him.
Yeah, that is why HE DOES NOT WANT a WAR and would like to COOL THINGS DOWN for the boy!
The crash occurred in the village of Ersong, in China’s northeastern Liaoning Province, about 2:30 p.m. Tuesday when the area’s farmers were resting.
“We all saw the plane dive from the sky toward us,’’ said one middle-aged villager, who lives in a nearby village and asked not to be quoted by name.
Photographs posted on South Korean websites showed the tail of the plane intact, with the red star inside a dark circle. The villager said Chinese officials moved in about an hour later and blocked the scene, with the plane still there.
Xinhua said the Chinese government was contacting North Korea over the issue.
South Korean media reports quoted people from the control center that monitors North Korean aircraft as saying radar images showed that a MiG-21 had taken off from a North Korean airbase shortly before the crash.
South Korean media said the pilot may have been trying to reach Russia, as China has an agreement with the Pyongyang to turn over defectors.
China remains North Korea’s sole staunch ally — “as close as lips and teeth,’’ in Mao Zedong’s famous phrase — and Beijing provides Kim’s regime with badly needed food aid and trade.
But several recent events have pointed to possible strains in the relationship. In early June, North Korean border guards fatally shot three Chinese civilians believed to have been involved in smuggling on the Yalu River along the two countries’ shared border.
See: Kicking North Korea
The incident prompted a rare public rebuke from the Chinese Foreign Ministry.
In March, South Korean media reported that Chinese authorities arrested a North Korean provincial official trying to smuggle two kilograms of high-quality methamphetamine into China.
The Chinese foreign ministry did not return calls last night seeking comment on the crash.I often wonder if the western reporter let the phone ring once before hanging up.
I mean, he wouldn't technically be lying, right?
Either that or he sat on the line while the phone went ring, ring, ring?
:-)
That's even better!
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A photo released by a South Korean news agency, and reportedly taken from a Chinese website, showed a small aircraft bearing North Korean markings crashed in a Chinese field. (Yonhap/AFP/Getty Images)
Just CURIOUS why NO WRECKAGE was found in that HOLE in a FIELD in Pennsylvania on 9/11 every time I see a photo of a plane crash.
That lie will never work again, nor will collapsing buildings at free-fall speed with controlled demolitions.
Thanks for the education, anyway. I'll never see those things in the same way ever again.
And now it turns out the NORTH WANTED to TALK?
"Report says N. Korea proposed talks with South" by Kwang-Tae Kim, Associated Press | August 19, 2010
SEOUL — North Korea offered to hold a summit with South Korea in an apparent bid to secure economic aid, but Seoul rejected the idea citing increased tensions, a news report said yesterday.
Notice how others always have a selfish motive as opposed to USraeli altruism?
Related: North Korea Needs Friends
Doesn't everyone?
Seoul had told North Korea last year that it would give the North aid if Pyongyang agreed to a summit, but when the North recently asked if that offer stood, it was told that circumstances had changed, according to the report in the mass-circulation Dong-a Ilbo newspaper, which cited unidentified South Korean government officials...
On Monday, South Korean and US troops began annual computerized military drills involving about 56,000 South Korean soldiers and 30,000 US troops in South Korea and abroad.
Yeah, it's just a video game.
Never you mind that buzzing and humming of planes and ships.
The United States and South Korea insist the drills are purely defensive....
As they PLAN for REGIME CHANGE!
The two countries plan to stage more drills in coming months....
Related: U.S. Postpones Iran Attack
No, it looks like the ATTACK is ON and it is SOON!
Meanwhile, a South Korean religious activist on an unauthorized trip to North Korea yesterday accused Seoul of pursuing a hostile policy against North Korea and depending on “foreign forces,’’ according to video footage from APTN in the North Korean capital.
During his trip to the North that began June 12, the Rev. Han Sang Ryol has blamed the South Korean conservative government for the ship sinking. Han is a member of a small but vocal minority of South Korean activists and religious groups that are sympathetic to North Korea and call for unification of the two countries. The North has embraced his visit.
Or that SEE the TRUTH!
Related: South Korean Corvette Sunk By Israeli Dolphin Class Submarine
“Everywhere I have gone, I have been warmly welcomed, more than I deserve,’’ Han told reporters in Pyongyang, according to APTN.
Han is to return home later this week and Seoul officials have said they would handle his case according to laws that could put him in prison for several years.
Yeah, that is a FREE DEMOCRACY for you!
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And I'm no better than those I criticize for I almost forgot:
"Landslides batter new area of China" by Associated Press | August 19, 2010
BEIJING — New landslides rocked another area of China yesterday, sweeping through a mountain town in the southwest of the country after days of heavy rains and leaving at least 67 people missing....
Mudslides and floods have recently killed at least 1,500 people around the country, mostly in Ganzu Province.
The provincial civil affairs office sent tents and clothing, but it is not known when the aid and rescue workers will get there....
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