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S Korean military pointing finger at
North over sinking
AFP , SEOUL
Friday, Apr 23, 2010, Page 1
South Koreaˇ¦s military believes that a North Korean submarine launched a torpedo
attack that sank a South Korean warship last month near their disputed sea
border, Yonhap news agency said yesterday.
The assessment was reported to the office of South Korean President Lee
Myung-bak and the defense ministry immediately after the ship sank last month,
an unnamed senior military source told Yonhap.
ˇ§Itˇ¦s our military intelligenceˇ¦s assessment that North Korean submarines
attacked the ship with a heavy torpedo,ˇ¨ the source said, adding that the subs
were armed with torpedoes with 200kg warheads. ˇ§Since February last year, North
Korea has strengthened training that showed the possibility of it launching a
guerrilla warfare-style provocation, rather than a skirmish.ˇ¨
The Southˇ¦s military intelligence command had also alerted the navy ahead of the
March 26 sinking of the Cheonan that North Korea was preparing an attack, Yonhap
said.
Seoul has so far refrained from directly accusing Pyongyang and said only that
an ˇ§external explosionˇ¨ was the most likely cause of the disaster that cost the
lives of 46 sailors.
Pyongyang has denied it was responsible.
South Koreaˇ¦s Chosun Ilbo newspaper, meanwhile, quoted defectors as saying that
North Korea had formed suicide attack squads known as ˇ§human torpedoesˇ¨ in its
navy.
It said the Northˇ¦s navy operates a brigade of suicide attack squads, which have
many mini-submarines.
High-ranking defector Hwang Jang-yop told the newspaper yesterday it was
ˇ§obviousˇ¨ the communist regimeˇ¦s leader Kim Jong-il was behind the sinking.
ˇ§It is obvious Kim did it and it is a widely known fact that he has been
preparing for this kind of [terrorism],ˇ¨ Hwang said.
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