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S Korea warship sunk by ¡¥strong external
impact¡¦
AFP , SEOUL
Sunday, Apr 25, 2010, Page 1
First inspections of the bow of a South Korean warship show it was hit by an
outside impact of considerable force, a South Korean military official said
yesterday, as suspicion increasingly falls on North Korea.
The Cheonan sank and was split in half after a mystery blast on March 26 close
to the disputed border of the two Koreas, leaving 40 sailors confirmed dead and
six others still unaccounted for.
Seoul has been careful not to point the finger directly at the North over the
incident in the Yellow Sea, which has stoked already tense ties, and Pyongyang
has denied it was to blame.
However, the South¡¦s Yonhap news agency on Thursday quoted a senior military
source in Seoul as saying it was suspected that North Korean submarines attacked
the ship with a heavy torpedo.
Yesterday salvage teams took their first look at the bow section after it was
hauled to the surface a day earlier, finding another body and more evidence a
strong external blast was to blame.
Quoting an unidentified military official, Yonhap said initial inspections
confirmed a large iron gate was off its hinges and a chimney was missing.
¡§This means there was a strong impact from the outside,¡¨ the official said.
A Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesman said they expected to find more bodies in the
bow, which was to be towed ashore later yesterday for detailed inspections to
find extra clues as to what tore the vessel apart.
The stern was salvaged on April 15, but offered few ideas as to what had caused
the explosion, from which 58 sailors were rescued.
Although Seoul has so far refrained from directly accusing North Korea,
investigators say an external explosion was most likely the cause.
South Korean Defense Minister Kim Tae-young said a mine or torpedo may have sunk
the corvette, but his ministry said it would keep an open mind until the
investigation is completed.
Pyongyang has accused the South¡¦s ¡§war maniacs¡¨ of seeking to shift the blame
for the tragedy to the North.
The disputed Yellow Sea border was the scene of deadly naval clashes between the
North and South in 1999 and 2002 and of a firefight last November that left a
North Korean patrol boat in flames.
The communist North on Friday seized South Korean-owned assets at a mountain
resort, warning that the two countries were on the brink of war over the
sinking.
The tensions prompted US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to say she hoped
there would be ¡§no miscalculation¡¨ that could spark a new war between the
Koreas.
South Korea President Lee Myung-bak on Wednesday vowed a ¡§resolute¡¨ response to
the Cheonan disaster, calling the worst peacetime loss of life for South Korea¡¦s
navy a ¡§wake-up call¡¨ and describing the North as the world¡¦s ¡§most belligerent¡¨
state.
Ties between the two Koreas appeared to have entered a new phase of
reconciliation after an historic inter-Korean summit in 2000, but have spiralled
downwards since Lee¡¦s government took power in 2008.
Lee has taken a tougher stance toward Pyongyang, while the North¡¦s nuclear
weapons development sparked international condemnation and sanctions.
A high-ranking North Korean defector on Thursday said it was ¡§obvious¡¨ the
communist regime¡¦s leader Kim Jong-il was behind the sinking, accusing him of
wanting to create chaos on the Korean peninsula.
Hwang Jang-yop, the architect of the communist regime¡¦s ideology of ¡§juche,¡¨ or
self-reliance, was once secretary of the ruling Workers¡¦ Party and a tutor to
Kim.
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