# The (de facto) North Korean confession
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-de-facto-north-korean-confession/546961
**Category:** Great Debates
**Created:** [July 16, 2010, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-de-facto-north-korean-confession/546961 "2010-07-16T20:19:49Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Camus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Camus)
#### Post date: [July 16, 2010, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-de-facto-north-korean-confession/546961/1 "2010-07-16T20:19:49Z")
According to a [NY Times](http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/17/world/asia/17korea.html?_r=1&hpw) story, a smuggled propaganda poster from NK all but takes credit for sinking the _Cheonan_, with an image of a NK fist punching a warship that looks suspiciously like the _Cheonan_ in two. The caption reads, “If they attack, we will smash them in a single blow!”
Also, per the article, which itself cites third-hand sources, North Korea secretly awarded medals to the crew of a particular submarine and has boasted about the _Cheonan_’s sinking in internal high-level talks. So, it looks like NK is doing their own version of [“If I Did It.”](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/If_i_did_it)
Does this finally mean that the idea that the US was secretly (and incoherently) responsible for the sinking will be on the same level that there the four killers of Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman are still out there?
---
### Author:  [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)
#### Post date: [July 16, 2010, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-de-facto-north-korean-confession/546961/2 "2010-07-16T20:48:10Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Does this finally mean that the idea that the US was secretly (and incoherently) responsible for the sinking will be on the same level that there the four killers of Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman are still out there?
It always was at that level. The only people who would take the claim that the US sunk that ship serious are those who avidly follow the next Loose Change revision release or continue to believe that a vast shadowy conspiracy did in JFK…
-XT
---
### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [July 16, 2010, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-de-facto-north-korean-confession/546961/3 "2010-07-16T22:30:54Z")
So far as I know, the only two hypotheses that were ever seriously considered were that North Korea did it, or that it was some sort of weird fluke accident that just happened to look almost exactly like North Korea did it.
---
### Author:  [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)
#### Post date: [July 17, 2010, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-de-facto-north-korean-confession/546961/4 "2010-07-17T03:50:50Z")
The North Koreans have been implying that they did it in Domestic propaganda since day one.
---
### Author:  [@blindboyard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blindboyard)
#### Post date: [July 18, 2010, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-de-facto-north-korean-confession/546961/5 "2010-07-18T13:17:58Z")
I wouldn’t necessarily believe the brags of the North Korean government.
---
### Author:  [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)
#### Post date: [July 18, 2010, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-de-facto-north-korean-confession/546961/6 "2010-07-18T15:40:29Z")
I wouldn’t necessarily believe the claims of the intelligence services. Fool me once …