This is a story that has been coverd both here and at China Confidential. Recall that is was China Confidential that broke much of this story open BEFORE others had even got started on it. There was much speculation and guessing from many sites and sources on why the Cheonan sunk. China Confidential was the first to call this on North Korea and predict that North Korea would do some type of hostile attack or event to ratchet up tensions on the Korean peninsula. This was out much earlier today and I am getting this one up rather late. just not enough hours in the day to cover it all. Plus blogging does not pay the bills. Not complaining, just a fact.
China Confidential: S. Korea to Formally Accuse North of Sinking Ship
The ship was torpedoed, as China Confidential first reported. Here is the the story.
South Korea appears set to formally accuse North Korea this week of sinking a naval patrol vessel in March, an incident that killed 46 sailors and possibly further reduced the chances for resuming six-nation talks on Pyongyang's nuclear program, the Korea Herald reported (see GSN, May 15).
"The joint investigation team has found evidence to conclude that the Cheonan was torpedoed and that it was a North Korean torpedo," a high-level government official said, adding that the South Korean military was contemplating releasing a statement that would condemn Pyongyang following the Thursday release of the findings of an international probe into the incident.
The statement is also expected to place blame for any ensuing fallout from the incident on the Stalinist nation and to announce the South's intention to ready itself for a potential outbreak in hostilities. It would be signed by Defense Minister Kim Tae-young.
"I cannot say whether the statement would use direct expressions such as the North’s ‘military provocation’ or ‘military attack’ as the investigation results are yet to be announced," the official said. "But such statement is usually targeted at someone, so its premises would include those (accusations)."
It has been widely speculated that the South would call for additional sanctions against the already-impoverished North. Pyongyang has been under heightened U.N. Security Council sanctions since last summer as punishment for carrying out its second nuclear test (Kim So-hyun, Korea Herald, May 16).
South Korea's naval forces on Saturday delivered warning shots at two North Korean patrol vessels that had crossed a contested sea boundary line into territory claimed by the South, Agence France Presse reported.
A South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesman said the North Korean ships withdrew without incident and no casualties were reported (Agence France-Presse I/Yahoo!News, May 16).
The top diplomats from China and Japan met with their South Korean counterpart, Yu Myung-hwan, on Saturday to discuss the sinking of the Cheonan, the long-suspended six-party nuclear negotiations and other matters of regional concern, AFP reported. North Korea, Russia and the United States are also participants in the talks that are aimed at permanently ending Pyongyang's nuclear weapons work and were last held in December 2008.
Seoul and Washington have said they would not return to the multilateral talks until the Cheonan matter is resolved. China, which hosts the talks and is the North's leading ally, has said the two matters should not be connected.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is likely to travel to the South sometime toward the end of May in a show of U.S. loyalty to Seoul in the naval disaster, South Korean officials have said (Agence France-Presse II/Google News, May 15).
A South Korean expert on the North, Dong Yong-sueng, said that Beijing has chosen not to take sides in the incident. When Seoul brought up the issue with China's ambassador to South Korea, it received a "neutral response," Dong told Kyodo News (Kyodo News I/Breitbart.com, May 16).
Meanwhile, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il was told during his trip to China this month that Beijing would abide by U.N. Security Council sanctions and not provide the communist nation with any prohibited financial aid, Kyodo reported.
Kim's rare trip outside his country was widely viewed as an attempt to win new economic aid from Beijing in exchange for a pledge to return to the six-party talks. A knowledgeable source told the JoongAng Ilbo that Kim decided to return to Pyongyang early after being rebuffed on the assistance.
"At the luncheon between Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Kim on May 6, the Chinese government informed the North that China will not provide aid outside the framework of the U.N. Security Council sanctions against Pyongyang," the source said. "After Beijing's position was explained, Kim shortened his schedule in China" (Kyodo News II/Japan Today, May 17).
Elsewhere, Pyongyang on Saturday called Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman an "imbecile in diplomacy" for asserting that North Korea was part of a network of nations that was engaged in WMD production and proliferation, AFP reported (see GSN, May 12).
A spokesman for the North's Foreign Ministry said through the state-run Korean Central News Agency that Pyongyang "has nothing to do with any spread of WMDs" (Agence France-Presse III/Yahoo!News, May 15).
Link to Original article at GSN.
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