SKorea’s president vows to find cause of mysterious ship sinking near NKorea border

more images

more images

SKorea’s Lee vows to find cause of ship sinking

SEOUL, South Korea — President Lee Myung-bak pledged Monday to take strong action against whoever was responsible for a mysterious explosion that sank a South Korean warship last month, amid growing speculation that North Korea may be behind the blast.

South Korea has not openly blamed North Korea for the March 26 blast that broke the 1,200-ton Cheonan in half during a routine patrol near the tense border with North Korea.

But officials have said they are open to the possibility that a North Korean naval mine or torpedo may have hit the vessel. On Friday, an investigator said the cause most likely was an external explosion, rather than a blast of munitions stored in the ship or the vessel hitting an underwater rock.

North Korea on Saturday denied involvement and said the South was spreading false rumors.

“I promise you that as the president I will uncover all details of the cause of the Cheonan’s sinking to the end,” Lee said in a nationally televised, 10-minute speech marked by emotion.

He said he would “resolutely and unwaveringly cope with the results” of the investigation, and would make South Korea’s military stronger to prevent similar events, though he didn’t mention North Korea.

He wiped away tears with his handkerchief after calling the names of all of the dead and missing sailors. “The country that you loved will never forget any of you,” Lee said.

Fifty-eight of the ship’s crew were rescued and 38 bodies have been found, most of them Thursday when the stern was raised from the water. Eight crew members are still unaccounted for.

The site of the sinking is near where the two Koreas fought three bloody sea battles since 1999. The Koreas are still technically at war, since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a cease-fire, not a peace treaty.

North Korea’s official media quoted a military commentator as saying South Korea’s government was linking Pyongyang to the blast to shore up sanctions against the North and to muster conservative votes for June’s mayoral and gubernatorial elections.

The U.N. Security Council slapped tough new sanctions on North Korea following its second nuclear test last year.

A senior U.S. intelligence official visited South Korea earlier this month to discuss if the North made any suspicious activities before and after the ship sinking, the mass-circulation Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported Monday. The National Intelligence Service — South Korea’s main spy agency — said it couldn’t confirm the report.

Lee’s foreign minister has said South Korea may ask the Security Council to take up the sinking if it confirms that North Korea was behind the blast.

Yu stressed that the investigation is continuing, and that it was too early to determine the cause of the blast. The government is preparing for all possible outcomes of the investigation but it’s “not appropriate” to discuss details, he said.