Battles on the Ocean and Ice Rink

Two big things happened in the news recently involving South Korea.

The major event is that on Tuesday the North Korean and South Korean navies got in a small skirmish about 220 km off the coast if ... INCHEON! Hey, I live in Incheon!



Obviously I wasn't affected by any of it. That's pretty far out there. But it was still a significant event.

From the story:

'The navies of North and South Korea clashed at sea Tuesday for the first time in seven years in what some analysts said was a provocation by the communist nation a week before President Barack Obama's visit to Seoul.

The North Korean ship retreated in flames, South Korean Prime Minister Chung Un-chan said, and the South's YTN television reported that one North Korean officer was killed and three other sailors were wounded.'

A South Korean political science professor thinks the North crossed into the South's water to make a point ahead of Obama's arrival. I don't think getting their faces bombed off sent the message they wanted, however.

Check the story here.

Now, in news that's more important to everyone in the world (by that I mean any Koreans and Americans who follow speed skating), an American skater upset two Koreans.

On Sunday, at the speedskating World Cup in Berlin, Tucker Fredricks beat two South Koreans for a victory in the 500-meter race.

Granted, very few people care about speedskating. But knowing the depth of Korean national pride, I feel great because an American put two of them in their place ... at least in this race.

So thank you, Tucker Fredricks.

Check that story out here.