Saegmo War

The Saegmo War is an ongoing armed conflict and undeclared war taking place primarily in the vicinity of the Saegmo Islands, a group of islands located to the south of Saegya and north of Trang. The islands have been under Saegyan control since 1865, but have been officially claimed by Trang as the Ngoctrai Islands since TBD.

Ownership Dispute
The Saegmo Islands were largely uninhabited until 1642, when they were settled in larger numbers by Yetpan, Saegyan, and Trangese settlers, primarily farming coffee and tea plants. In 1722, the Saegmo Islands were claimed formally as part of the Kingdom of Saegya. Formal administration over the island chain was established in 1865. Yetpan and Trangese settlers were often forced off their lands either by predatory business tactics by the government-backed Saegyan farmers, or by force. By 1905, 70% of the island's population was ethnically Saegyan. The Trangese government has claimed the island as part of their sovereign territory since at least TBD.

2018 pearl hunting dispute
In May of 2018, Trangese pearling boats began to conduct pearlhunting in waters off Saegmo in rather large groups. The Saegyan government issued a formal complaint to the OCN on 13 May, stating that the 'shameless exploitation and flagrant molestation of Saegyan territory will not be tolerated'. The following morning, the Saegyan Defense Secretariat issued a statement that warned that the Saegmo Island's economic exclusion zone would be strictly enforced, and violators would be prosecuted under international law.

On June 11th, the Saegyan TBD-class corvette 542 approached a group of Trangese-marked trawlers conducting pearling operations 4 miles off of the coast of Jagiya Island. The corvette demanded via loudspeaker and over radio that the trawlers leave immediately, to which the trawlers did not respond. After thirty minutes of attempting to contact the trawlers, 542 engaged one of the trawlers with the 57mm deck gun, which resulted in said trawler rapidly capsizing and sinking. 6 members of the crawler's crew were killed in the incident, with an additional 13 wounded. The survivors were picked up by helicopters and watercraft of the Saegyan Revolutionary Navy and Coastal Service, and detained.

The sinking of the trawler, and subsequent detainment of Trangese citizens, prompted alarm as Saegyan and Trangese naval forces engaged in a standoff over the islands. An incident involving the crash of a Saegyan Revolutionary Navy KaG-2 helicopter and the death of its occupants on July 3rd nearly ignited an open confrontation between the two, but tempers cooled as it was discovered the helicopter crashed due to a mechanical failure. Protests erupted in Trang over the killing, which were allowed by the government.

On July 19th, the Saegyan government agreed to repatriate the survivors and the bodies of the sunken trawler, including two additional who had died from their wounds. Saegya refused to compensate the victims or their family or accept responsibility for the incident, calling it a 'regrettable affair'.

Discovery of platinum deposits
In December of 2019, workers on Ipwongsung Island installing underground cables discovered ore deposits that were revealed to contain an abnormally high amount of platinum, a highly valuable and rare resource. Kaegdo Limited, a Saegyan extraction corporation, announced their intent to construct a platinum mine on Ipwongsung Island. The construction of the mine was started in late May of 2020. The discovery was met with renewed calls from the Trangese government for the 'immediate return of the Ngoctrai Islands'.