Daily Kor for March 27, 2010: Not-so-good Friday

I just don't know what to say. It's a tragedy whenever this kind of thing happened — dozens of people probably dead — but there's a huge question of whether this was some deliberate act, an accident, or something else.

That is, did North Korea fire on this boat or perhaps sink it with a mine? Was it an accident on the part of the ROK Navy? Fortunately, no one seems to be flying off the handle, so we can take the time to see what the evidence points to. I don't even want to speculate, then, about how Seoul should react if it turns out that the North was responsible for this. Let's just wait and see.

1. Forty-six South Korean seamen still missing in Yellow Sea waters off Paengnyŏngdo near North Korea after ROK Navy ship sinks following explosion (The Times, BBC, LAT, WaPo, Reuters via NYT, AP via LAT, Bloomberg, Yonhap, Korea Times, Korea Herald, Joongang Daily, Chosun Ilbo)
• Fifty-eight sailors rescued as South Korea continues its search (BBC, WSJ, Yonhap)
• Global stocks briefly dip on news of sinking (Reuters via WaPo)
• ROK Defense Ministry downplays DPRK link, saying unidentified object the vehicle had fired at could have been flock of birds (Reuters via WaPo, MSNBC)
• US State Department has no evidence of North Korean involvement (Yonhap)
• President Lee calls for quick investigation (Yonhap)
• Political parties urge thorough probe of incident (Yonhap)
2. Eight government officials killed in late-night car accident near beach in Taean (Yonhap, Korea Times)
3. South Korea calls for immediate identification of four ROK nationals being held in North Korea (Yonhap, Korea Times)
4. DPRK officials conduct a second day of inspection of South Korean amenities at North Korean tourist sites (Yonhap)
5. Hagwon instructor who leaked SAT exam questions gets eight-month prison sentence (Korea Herald, Joongang Daily)
6. Kim Yuna chokes in Figure Skating World Championships in Torino, Italy (Yonhap, Korea Times)
7. No, not today.