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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...

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...

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan are expected to ratchet up diplomatic efforts to garner international support for a UN reprimand of North Korea during this weekend’s G-20 Summit in Toronto. Seoul has asked the UN Security Council to officially condemn Pyongyang for the fatal March 26 attack on South Korean warship Cheonan, an accusation Pyongyang has furiously denied. After two Koreas held dueling briefings to push their own versions of the story to member countries at the UN Security Council, negotiations came to a temporary halt this week as the ambassadors of the member countries...

The National Assembly's Defense Committee on Wednesday passed a resolution accusing North Korea of torpedoing the South Korean Navy corvette Cheonan. It took 89 days since the ship sank in the West Sea on March 26. Both the U.S. Congress and European Parliament were quicker to react by passing relevant resolutions on May 14 at the Senate and May 26 at the House of Representatives and on June 17 in Strasbourg. The resolution is now expected to pass a full session of the National Assembly on June 28. The main opposition Democratic Party is expected to make no attempt to...

The surviving bomber of Korean Air flight 858 is convinced that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il gave orders to sink the South Korean Navy corvette Cheonan in March. Kim Hyun-hee, now rehabilitated and living in the South, was speaking to the Monthly Chosun. "To those who still claim that the result of the investigation was fabricated, the truth doesn't matter. Rather, they're afraid of the truth that North Korea did it, and they just don't like it." She pointed out that the North still denies its involvement in the bombing of the Korean Air flight 858. "North Korea still claims...

The leaders of 20 leading economies will discuss the sinking of a South Korean warship at their summit later this week, the U.S. State Department said Tuesday. Spokesman Philip Crowley, however, said he was not sure if the leaders either at the G-20 summit or the G-8 economic summit in Canada will produce a joint statement blaming North Korea for the sinking of the Cheonan in the Yellow Sea in March, which killed 46 sailors. "I think the president will have the opportunity to meet with a range of leaders from the region," Crowley said. "I'm certain that the issue...

Russia has demanded member-states at the upcoming G-8 summit refrain from blaming North Korea for the sinking of a South Korean warship in a draft of the meeting's statement. Citing a Japanese government source, a Kyodo news report said the demand follows an investigation by a team of four Russian Navy submarine and torpedo experts into the March 26 sinking of the 'Cheonan' in the Yellow Sea in which 46 South Korean sailors drowned. Moscow says it has yet to reach an official conclusion on the warship sinking. The issue is likely to figure prominently at the summit starting in...

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Friday called for a "thorough investigation" of the sinking of the South Korean Navy corvette Cheonan before taking any action against North Korea. Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, Medvedev said, "Although only one version has been broadly circulated, we should not take it immediately for granted. A thorough investigation is needed." The sinking, which claimed the lives of 46 South Korean sailors, was "tragic," he said, adding that the "hypothesis" that it was torpedoed by "a neighboring country" -- i.e. North Korea -- is one of the possible scenarios. "As soon as the results...

South Korea's top military officer has been accused of being absent from the defense ministry's main command and control center on the night of North Korea's torpedo attack on a South Korean warship in the Yellow Sea, state auditors disclosed Friday. Gen. Lee Sang-eui, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), is also suspected of having manipulated an internal document to pretend that he was present at the command and control center throughout the night on March 26, when the warship Cheonan sank, killing 46 sailors, officials at the Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) said.

North Korean submarine fired a Chinese-made torpedo to sink the South Korean warship Cheonan, South Korean scientists said. If confirmed, it would implicate China in the incident that killed 46 South Korean sailors and increased tensions on the volatile Korean peninsula. U.S. defenders of China’s communist government dismissed the report, saying there was no way to confirm whether a Chinese torpedo and not a North Korean-manufactured torpedo was used. China affairs specialist William Triplett II said the sinking exposes a Beijing-Pyongyang arms relationship, something that is rarely mentioned in discussions of North Korea’s missile and weapons buildup. U.S. intelligence reports...

The Pentagon isn't calling the recent sinking of a South Korean ship by North Korea an outright act of war, but Defense Secretary Robert Gates said they are in close contact with their South Korean counterparts. Gates said the United States supports South Korea's determination that the March sinking of a military ship was in fact caused by North Korea. "We certainly support the findings of the Korean, the South Korean investigation. We obviously are in close consultation with the Koreans. The attack was against one of their ships and naturally they would have the lead in determining the path...

South Korea has concluded that a North Korean torpedo sank one of its warships in March, killing 46 sailors, according to government officials and domestic news reports on Tuesday. South Korean officials are preparing to announce the results of their investigation later this week. The much anticipated finding will accuse North Korea of committing one of the worst military provocations on the Korean Peninsula since the end of the Korean War, deepening tensions between the countries. North Korea, denying involvement in the sinking, has vowed to retaliate against any attempt to link it with the March 26 explosion that broke...

Korea and the United States are in sync over ways to deal with the sinking of a South Korean warship, which left 46 sailors dead on the sea border with North Korea in March, a senior South Korean official said Friday. Lee Yong-joon, deputy foreign minister, did not elaborate, just saying, "Details will be released after the outcome of the probe (of the sinking) is announced." North Korea is suspected to be behind the sinking of the 1,200-ton Cheonan, although an international team of South Korean, U.S. and Australian specialists has not yet determined the cause. The investigation is being...

Beijing is approaching the sinking of the South Korean warship Cheonan with caution to avoid damaging its relations with its fraternal communist neighbor North Korea, U.S. officials say. In this April 24, 2010 file photo, a giant offshore crane salvages the bow section of the South Korean naval ship Cheonan off Baengnyeong Island, South Korea. AP/Yonhap, Choi Jae-Ku Chinese President Hu Jintao offered sympathetic remarks on the sinking of the Cheonan during a meeting with South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak at the opening of the Shanghai World Expo. But Chinese state-run media did not report Hu's comments. According to non-Chinese...

South Korea came closer on Thursday to blaming North Korea for the sinking of a navy ship in March that killed 46 sailors with reports saying it plans economic measures to punish Pyongyang for a suspected torpedo attack.South Korea has not officially accused the North of sinking its navy ship but has made little secret of its belief Pyongyang deliberately torpedoed the 1,200 corvette Cheonan near their disputed border in retaliation for a naval clash last year. "The sinking of the Cheonan showed the cold hard realities of division (on the peninsula) for the world to see," South Korea's pointman...

Experts investigating the blast which sank a South Korean warship are checking salvaged metal fragments against a North Korean torpedo which Seoul retrieved seven years ago, a report said Thursday. South Korea has mounted a multinational probe into what caused the explosion which split the 1,200-tonne corvette the Cheonan in two near the disputed border with the North on March 26. "Comparisons are underway to check if metal pieces recovered from the Cheonan are made of material similar to that of a North Korean torpedo," an unidentified military official told Yonhap news agency. The official was quoted as saying the...

South Korea's defence minister confirmed Monday that traces of high explosive were found on the wreckage of a warship sunk by a mystery blast, indicating it was probably hit by a torpedo. The 1,200-tonne corvette was split in two near the tense Yellow Sea border with North Korea on March 26. Suspicion has fallen on the North. Defence Minister Kim Tae-Young, confirming earlier media reports that had been denied by his ministry, said investigators had found traces of RDX explosive, which is widely used in torpedoes. The discovery means a torpedo was the likeliest cause of the disaster, Kim said...

With suspicion growing of North Korea’s involvement in the sinking of the naval patrol ship Cheonan, South Korea is stepping up preparation for a diplomatic response to the incident. Seoul will begin its diplomatic response with its allies based on its bilateral alliance with Washington and seek support from the international community. This gradual approach is intended to gain global support for sanctions on North Korea. ○ Comprehensive response based on S. Korea-U.S. alliance Beginning with a meeting of the Security Policy Initiative Friday, South Korea and the U.S. are devising countermeasures. A South Korean official said, “The direction of...

Japan and the United States reaffirmed Thursday that, together with South Korea, they will respond in a united manner to North Korea based on the findings of the probe being conducted into the unexplained sinking of a South Korean warship, Japanese officials said. The decision was made in a meeting between Akitaka Saiki, director general of the Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, and U.S. special envoy to North Korea Stephen Bosworth. They met at a time when suspicion is growing that the March 26 sinking in the Yellow Sea, which killed 46 crew members, might have been the...