How time flies. Can it really be five years since the Cheonan was sunk?

It seems like just yesterday I heard the news: from the BBC, who wanted an interview. So I hurried to my local studio with – as quite often, in truth – little to go on by way of hard fact, let alone explanation. (Bear this in mind whenever you hear us media pundits pontificating.)

All we knew at first was that a South Korean warship had sunk suddenly off Baengnyong: the most distant of South Korea’s West Sea islands, close to North Korea. Grim details followed.