NKorea warns of war if punished for ship sinking

[David]

AP


SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea, accused of waging the deadliest attack on the South Korean military since the Korean War, flatly denied sinking a warship Thursday and warned that retaliation would mean "all-out war."

Evidence presented Thursday to prove North Korea fired a torpedo that sank a South Korean ship was fabricated by Seoul, North Korean naval spokesman Col. Pak In Ho told broadcaster APTN in an exclusive interview in Pyongyang.

He warned that any move to sanction or strike North Korea would be met with force.

"If (South Korea) tries to deal any retaliation or punishment, or if they try sanctions or a strike on us .... we will answer to this with all-out war," he told APTN.

An international team of civilian and military investigators declared earlier in Seoul that a North Korean submarine fired a homing torpedo at the Cheonan on March 26, ripping the 1,200-ton ship in two.

Fifty-eight sailors were rescued, but 46 died — South Korea's worst military disaster since a truce ended the three-year Korean War in 1953.

President Lee Myung-bak vowed to take "resolute countermeasures" and called an emergency security meeting for Friday.

The White House called the sinking an unacceptable "act of aggression" that violated international law and the 1953 truce. Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama declared his support for South Korea, calling North Korea's actions "inexcusable."

However, South Korea's options for retaliation are limited.

The armistice prevents Seoul from waging a unilateral military attack, and South Korea would not risk any retaliation that could lead to war, said North Korea expert Yoo Ho-yeol at Korea University in Seoul.

"That could lead to a completely uncontrollable situation," he said, noting that Seoul and its 10 million residents are within striking range of North Korea's forward-deployed artillery.

South Korea and the U.S., which has 28,500 troops on the peninsula, could hold another round of joint military exercises in a show of force, said Daniel Pinkston, a Seoul-based analyst for the International Crisis Group think tank.

He also said the military will likely improve its early warning surveillance abilities and anti-submarine warfare capabilities to prevent such surprise attacks in the future.

Analysts said Seoul could move to punish North Korea financially, and Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan also has said Seoul would consider taking it to the U.N. Security Council.

The impoverished country is already suffering from U.N. sanctions tightened last year in the wake of widely condemned nuclear and missile tests.

Any new Security Council action would require backing from permanent seat holder China, but analyst Koh Yu-hwan at Seoul's Dongguk University said Beijing, North Korea's traditional ally and backer during the Korean War, was unlikely to accept the Cheonan investigation report.

China responded mildly to the report, with Vice Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai calling the sinking "unfortunate" and reiterating the need to maintain peace on the Korean peninsula.

North Korea is accused of waging a slew of attacks on South Korea over the years, including the 1987 downing of a South Korean airliner that killed all 115 people on board. It has never owned up to the attacks, and Seoul has never retaliated militarily.

Since the signing of a nonaggression pact in 1991, clashes between the North and South have focused on the waters off their west coast.

North Korea disputes the maritime border drawn unilaterally by U.N. forces at the close of the Korean War, and the area where the Cheonan sank has been the site of several deadly naval clashes, most recently in November.

Pak, the North Korean naval official, said his country had no reason to sink the Cheonan.

"Our Korean People's Army was not founded for the purpose of attacking others. We have no intention of striking others first," he told APTN. "Why would we attack a ship like the Cheonan, which has no relation with us? We have no need to strike it, and doing so would have no meaning for us."

Investigators from the five-nation team said detailed scientific analysis of the wreckage, as well as fragments recovered from the waters where the Cheonan went down, point to North Korean involvement.

Torpedo fragments found on the seabed "perfectly match" the schematics of a North Korean-made torpedo Pyongyang has tried to sell abroad, chief investigator Yoon Duk-yong said. A serial number on one piece is consistent with markings from a North Korean torpedo that Seoul obtained years earlier, he said.

"The evidence points overwhelmingly to the conclusion that the torpedo was fired by a North Korean submarine," he said. "There is no other plausible explanation."

Pak, the North Korean military official, dismissed it as faked evidence.

"If there were indications that the sinking was our doing, then the whole thing is an act — theatrics by the South Koreans to implicate us," he said.

The colonel spoke to APTN outside another foreign warship: the USS Pueblo, seized by North Korea in a high-seas hijacking in 1968. The American captain and crew were held for 11 months before being freed.

Towed to Pyongyang in 1999, the ship is popular tourist sight, a floating museum moored along the Taedong River that showcases North Korea's naval exploits.

Pak, a 55-year veteran whose uniform was bedecked with medals, said he was among those who helped capture the USS Pueblo more than four decades ago.

[DMZ-LT]

Looks like Pac is a North Korean wannabe

[locksly]

Well it seems that NORTH KOREA found a more normal use for its torpedoes the resent use for its torpedoes was sinking destroyer escorts belonging to SOUTH KOREA`s navy . There was an American admiral explaning all this news on FOX news tonight . The CIA spy satellite crud did not see this sub so 46 sailors died in the attack .
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Report says N Korea torpedoed ship
Published: 3:44PM Thursday May 20, 2010
South Korea accused the reclusive North on Thursday of torpedoing one of its warships, heightening tension in the economically powerful region and testing the international position of China, Pyongyang's only major backer.

South Korea said it would take "firm" measures against its impoverished neighbour, which furiously responded that it was ready for war if Seoul or its allies imposed sanctions.

A report by investigators, including experts from the United States, Australia, Britain and Sweden, concluded that a North Korean submarine had fired the torpedo which sank the Cheonan corvette in March, killing 46 sailors.

"There is no other plausible explanation," their report said.

Financial markets in Seoul showed little reaction to the widely anticipated findings of the report but were watching nervously for any serious escalation in tensions

"The key is what kind of measures South Korea will take and how North Korea will react to them," said Choi Seong-lak, an analyst at SK Securities.

"If things become violent it will affect foreign investors, but for today the impact from the result itself will be limited."

International condemnation was immediate, with the stark exception of China, which analysts say is desperate to avoid any action that might destablise its reclusive neighbour and lead to a spill-out into in its territory.

A senior South Korean government official said previously that the attack appeared to have been in revenge for a firefight near the disputed North-South border late last year in which the North's navy was humiliated.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called the contents of the South Korean investigation deeply troubling..

Both the United States and Britain gave their backing to the findings, with the White House calling it an act of aggression that was another sign of the North's unacceptable behaviour.

China simply termed the sinking "unfortunate". Vice Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai declined to comment on the South Korean report and urged stability on the peninsula.

Firm measures

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak will hold an emergency meeting of his National Security Council on Friday. His government has already made clear it has no plans for a retaliatory strike of its own but will be pressing the international community to take action, probably more sanctions, against the North.

"We will be taking firm, responsive measures against the North, and through international cooperation, we have to make the North admit its wrongdoing and come back as a responsible member of the international community," Lee was quoted by his office as telling Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

The report, announced in a nationally televised news conference, said intelligence had shown that North Korean submarines were likely in operation near the scene of the sinking, with similar vessels of other neighbouring countries all inside their territorial waters.

"The evidence points overwhelmingly to the conclusion that the torpedo was fired by a North Korean submarine," it said.

The issue has plunged already icy relations between the two Koreas deeper into the freezer.

North Korea said the South's conservative government was using the incident for political gain and to further undermine ties between the two Koreas, which have yet to sign a formal peace treaty to end their 1950-53 war.

"Our army and people will promptly react to any 'punishment' and 'retaliation' and to any 'sanctions' infringing upon our state interests with various forms of tough measures including an all-out war," its official news agency quoted the powerful National Defence Commission as saying in a typically florid statement..

The issue also puts China in a tricky spot. The host of on-again, off-again regional talks to rein in North Korea's nuclear weapons programme is the reclusive state's only major ally and is reluctant to penalise its government.

"It's going to be very, very difficult for China to navigate this one. The South Koreans are not particularly pleased about what China's doing," said Charles Freeman, China expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

Seoul is already upset with Beijing, a major trading partner, for hosting North Korean leader Kim Jong-il on a rare trip abroad before the outcome of the investigation was announced.

But there have been media reports in the South that Chinese leaders may not have given the frail-looking Kim as much support as he wanted, speculating ties may now be starting to fray.

Paik Jin-hyun, a North Korea expert at Seoul National University, said tension between the two Koreas was inevitable.

"North Korea has given out war threats before and they are doing this now because the situation has become urgent for them. They will try to block sanctions at all costs. In this heightened state of affairs, provocations may occur."