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North Korea's military delayed a rare meeting set for Tuesday with military officers from the U.S.-led United Nations Command (UNC) to discuss the sinking of a South Korean warship blamed on the communist country, officials said. The two sides were scheduled to meet at the border truce village of Panmunjom on Tuesday morning, but the North's military requested a delay about two hours before the meeting's scheduled start, citing "administrative reasons," said an official at the UNC. A new date for the colonel-level meeting, which would be the first such meeting since the March sinking that dramatically raised tensions on...

The U.N. Security Council adopted a statement Friday condemning the attack that led to the sinking of a South Korean warship without directly linking North Korea to the incident. The 15-member council unanimously approved the statement one day after five veto-wielding members, including the North's major ally China, agreed to a draft statement. China succeeded in diluting the statement, as it did not point the finger at North Korea and included North Korea's denial of involvement in the incident, which killed 46 sailors in the Yellow Sea in March. "The Security Council condemns the attack which led to the sinking...

The defection of North Koreans via sea barges is on the rise since the Cheonan sinking in March, according to the military. Seoul is concerned that the defections could be part of a spying scheme by Pyongyang. Government sources in foreign affairs and defense told the JoongAng Ilbo yesterday that two North Koreans were spotted by the South Korean Navy on an unpowered barge in the East Sea, 40 kilometers (25 miles) away from Sokcho, Gangwon, at 9 a.m. June 26. “On the spot, they said their motive was to defect from the military,” one source said, “and were led...

South Korea Thursday rejected North Korea's proposal for direct military talks on the sinking of a warship, saying the issue should be handled under the armistice which ended their 1950-53 war. Tensions have been high since the South, citing findings of a multinational probe, accused the North of torpedoing a corvette with the loss of 46 sailors near the disputed sea border. The South announced its own reprisals, including cutting off most trade, and is also asking the United Nations Security Council to censure the North. The North, which has angrily denied any involvement in the sinking, has threatened a...

Some military specialists suspect that China's failure to accept the findings of an international panel on the sinking of the South Korean coastal patrol ship in March is related to Beijing's probable foreknowledge of North Korean submarine movements. “I would suspect that either the PRC has on-site knowledge of DPRK submarines from a presence at their base or their own underwater monitoring systems in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea,” said one expert. “If their was the slightest indication of either foreknowledge or complicity it would hurt PRC standing in the international community.” China also has a close relationship...

The use of a North Korea midget sub to sink a South Korean corvette three months ago, has forced the United States, and South Korea, to seriously confront the problems involved in finding these small subs in coastal waters. This is a difficult task, because the target is small, silent (moving using battery power) and in a complex underwater landscape, that makes sonar less effective. After the Cold War ended in 1991, the U.S. recognized that these coastal operations would become more common. So, in the 1990s, the U.S. developed the Advanced Deployable System (ADS) for detecting non-nuclear submarines in...

South Korea's defence minister said Friday that a torpedo might have sunk a warship near the tense North Korean border but cautioned that the investigation was incomplete."A torpedo or a sea mine might have been involved but a torpedo is a more realistic cause than a mine," minister Kim Tae-Young told parliament as divers resumed a search for 46 sailors missing from the 1,200-tonne corvette. Sailors operating the ship's sonar detection system had not detected any approaching torpedo, Kim said, adding: "Patience is needed until investigation results come out." A week after the disaster, officials are still groping for answers...