UNITED States (U.S.) President Barack Obama has directed the military to coordinate with South Korea to “ensure readiness” and deter future aggression from North Korea.
left,South Korean President Lee Myung-bak,Right,Bush-
White House spokesman, Robert Gibbs, said in a statement yesterday that the U.S. gave strong backing to plans by South Korean President Lee Myung-bak to punish the North for sinking one of its naval ships. The White House urged Pyongyang to apologise and change its behaviour.
A giant offshore crane, unseen, salvages front portion of the sunken South Korean naval ship Cheonan off Baengnyeong Island, South Korea, Saturday, April 24, 2010. South Korea lifted remaining half of its warship Saturday in waters near the disputed sea border with North Korea, a month after it sank following a mysterious explosion that left 46 sailors dead or missing. (AP Photo/Yonhap, Choi Jae-ku)-
“We endorse President Lee’s demand that North Korea immediately apologise and punish those responsible for the attack and most importantly, stop its belligerent and threatening behavior,” Gibbs said.
South Korean Prime Minister Chung Un-chan speaks in a press conference at the government complex in Seoul, South Korea, Sunday, April 25, 2010. Chung said that South Korea will take a "stern" action against anyone responsible for a mysterious blast that sank a South Korean warship near the border with North Korea, as the country starts a funeral for dozens of dead navy sailors. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)-
“U.S. support for South Korea’s defense is unequivocal, and the president has directed his military commanders to coordinate closely with their Republic of Korea counterparts to ensure readiness and to deter future aggression,” he said.
South Korean Prime Minister Chung Un-chan, left, burn incense during a memorial service for the deceased sailors from the sunken South Korean naval ship Cheonan at the Second Fleet Command in Pyeongtaek, South Korea, Sunday, April 25, 2010. The defense minister says that a torpedo attack likely has torn apart and sank a South Korean warship that went down near the tense border with North Korea last month. (AP Photo/Korea Pool)-
Gibbs, according to Reuters, added that Obama and Lee had agreed to meet at the G-20 summit in Canada next month.
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak walks by portraits of the deceased sailors from the sunken South Korean naval ship Cheonan during a memorial service held at Seoul City Hall Plaza in South Korea, Monday, April 26, 2010. (AP Photo/Yonhap, Jo Bo-hee)-
Seoul yesterday cut trade to Pyongyang vowing the communist country would “pay a price” for a torpedo attack that killed 46 sailors, and promised to haul its impoverished neighbour before the UN Security Council.
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak watches portraits of the deceased sailors from the sunken South Korean naval ship Cheonan during a memorial service held at Seoul City Hall Plaza in South Korea, Monday, April 26, 2010. (AP Photo/Yonhap, Jo Bo-hee)-
In response, North Korea yesterday said it would fire shots at loudspeakers the South plans to set up near the tense inter-Korean border.
U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, yesterday discussed with China, a veto-wielding permanent seat holder on the Security Council, on how best to handle the precarious situation.
South Korean honor guard soldiers walk by the portraits of the deceased sailors from the sunken South Korean naval ship Cheonan during a memorial service at Seoul City Hall Plaza in South Korea, Sunday, April 25, 2010. The defense minister says that a torpedo attack likely has torn apart and sank a South Korean warship that went down near the tense border with North Korea last month.(AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)-
However, Clinton warned of a “highly precarious” security situation in the region, and said North Korea's neighbours, including Pyongyang ally China, understood the seriousness of the matter.
So far, China has refrained from criticising the North, which it supplied with troops during the Korean War.
Members of the South Korean special warfare command salute in front of the portraits of the deceased sailors from the sunken South Korean naval ship Cheonan during a memorial service at Seoul City Hall Plaza in South Korea, Sunday, April 25, 2010. The defense minister says that a torpedo attack likely has torn apart and sank a South Korean warship that went down near the tense border with North Korea last month.(AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)-
“We are working hard to avoid an escalation of belligerence and provocation,” she said.
North Korea has benefited from trade with the South, though not to the point where its economy has become dependent on its rival. Pyongyang’s trade with close ally China, for example, is bigger.
“We have always tolerated North Korea’s brutality, time and again. We did so because we have always had a genuine longing for peace on the Korean peninsula,” Lee said in a solemn speech to the nation from the halls of the country’s War Memorial.
“But now things are different. North Korea will pay a price corresponding to its provocative acts,” he said.
Mother of late South Korean sailor Kim Tae-suck kisses on a portrait of her son during a memorial service for the deceased sailors from the sunken South Korean naval ship Cheonan at the Second Fleet Command of Navy in Pyeongtaek in South Korea, Monday, April 26, 2010. (AP Photo/Korea Pool)-
Lee also pledged to prohibit North Korea’s cargo ships from passing through South Korean waters - in retaliation for the March 26 sinking.
The South’s measures will cost North Korea about $200 million a year, said Lim Eul-chul, a North Korea expert at South Korea's Kyungnam University.
Lee called it a “critical turning point” on the tense Korean peninsula, still technically in a state of war because the fighting ended with a truce, not a peace treaty.
South Koreans pay a silent tribute during a memorial service for the deceased sailors from the sunken South Korean naval ship Cheonan at Seoul City Hall Plaza in South Korea, Sunday, April 25, 2010. The defense minister says that a torpedo attack likely has torn apart and sank a South Korean warship that went down near the tense border with North Korea last month.(AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)-
The sinking of the Cheonan near the Koreas' western maritime border was South Korea's worst military disaster since the three-year Korean War. An international team of investigators said last week that a torpedo fired from a North Korean submarine tore the ship in two.
Pyongyang disputes the maritime border unilaterally drawn by UN forces at the close of the war, and the Koreas have fought three bloody skirmishes there, most recently in November.
South Korean mourners wipe their tears in front of portraits of the deceased sailors from the sunken South Korean naval ship Cheonan during a memorial service at Seoul City Hall Plaza in South Korea, Sunday, April 25, 2010. Defense Minister Kim Tae-young says that a torpedo attack likely has torn apart and sank a South Korean warship that went down near the tense border with North Korea last month. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)-
Defense Minister Kim Tae-young said the U.S. and South Korea would hold anti-submarine military exercises in the waters soon. The U.S. has 28,500 troops in South Korea - a major sore point for the North.
South Korea's military, on guard to defend the nation from further North Korean aggression, will also resume blaring anti-North Korean propaganda back over the border - a sensitive practice suspended in 2004 amid warming ties, officials said.
A South Korean family pay a silent tribute in front of the portraits of the deceased sailors from the sunken South Korean naval ship Cheonan during a memorial service at Seoul City Hall Plaza in South Korea, Sunday, April 25, 2010. The defense minister says that a torpedo attack likely has torn apart and sank a South Korean warship that went down near the tense border with North Korea last month.(AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)-
Lee called the sinking of the Cheonan yet another example of "incessant" provocation by communist North Korea, accused in a 1983 attack on a presidential delegation that killed 21 people and the bombing of an airliner in 1987 that claimed 115 lives.
North Korea routinely denies involvement in the attacks, and has steadfastly denied responsibility for the Cheonan sinking. Naval spokesman Col. Pak In Ho warned last week in comments to broadcaster APTN that any move to retaliate or punish Pyongyang would draw “all-out war.”
An unidentified family member of a victim of the sunken South Korean naval ship Cheonan cries in a memorial service for the 46 dead and missing sailors at the Second Fleet Command in Pyeongtaek in South Korea, Sunday, April 25, 2010. The defense minister says that a torpedo attack likely has torn apart and sank the South Korean warship that went down near the tense border with North Korea last month.(AP Photo/Korea Pool)-
Both North and South Korea continue to officially claim sovereignty over the entire peninsula and any outlying islands. With longstanding animosity following the Korean War from 1950 to 1953, North Korea and South Korea signed an agreement to pursue peace. On October 4, 2007, Roh Moo-Hyun and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il signed an eight-point agreement on issues of permanent peace, high-level talks, economic cooperation, renewal of train services, highway and air travel, and a joint Olympic cheering squad.
South Korea elementary school students pay their respects in front of portraits of the deceased sailors from the sunken South Korean naval vessel Cheonan during a memorial event at the National Assembly in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, April 22, 2010. Military intelligence officers had warned earlier this year that North Korea was preparing a suicide submarine attack on a South Korean vessel in retaliation for an earlier defeat in a sea battle, a newspaper said Thursday.(AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)-
Despite the Sunshine Policy and efforts at reconciliation, the progress was complicated by North Korean missile tests in 1993, 1998, 2006 and 2009. As of early 2009, relationships between North and South Korea were very tense; North Korea had been reported to have deployed missiles,ended its former agreements with South Korea,and threatened South Korea and the United States not to interfere with a satellite launch it had planned.
As of 2009, North and South Korea are still technically at war (having never signed an armistice after the Korean War) and share the world’s most heavily fortified border. On May 27, 2009, North Korea declared that the ceasefire treaty, signed post Korean War, is no longer valid due to the South Korean government's pledge to "definitely join" the Proliferation Security Initiative. To further complicate and intensify strains between the two nations, the sinking of the South Korean warship Cheonan in March 2010, killing 46 seamen, is as of May 20, 2010 claimed by a multi-national research team to have been caused by a North Korean torpedo, which the North denies.
South Korea agreed with the findings from the research group and President Lee Myung-bak declared in May 2010 that Seoul would cut all trade with North Korea as part of measures primarily aimed at striking back at North Korea diplomatically and financially.
As a result of this, North Korea severed all ties, completely abrogated the previous pact of non aggression and expelled all South Koreans from a joint industrial zone in Kaesong.
South Korea has since honored the 46 sailors on April 21, with a tearful military funeral a month after a blast sank their warship, and officials vowed retaliation for those responsible as speculation mounted that North Korea may have torpedoed the vessel.
An estimated 2,800 mourners including President Lee Myung-bak attended the outdoor funeral at a navy base south of Seoul for the ceremony as sirens sounded across the country. A somber Lee and his wife placed white chrysanthemums — a traditional flower of mourning in South Korea — burned incense and bowed before the framed photos of the soldiers, while buglers played taps.
The names of each sailor was read out while Lee, clad in a black suit and tie, placed military decorations on a giant alter below individual photos of each man.
They had all been posthumously promoted by one rank in recent days.
Buddhist monks clad in orange and white robes chanted prayers at the interfaith funeral. Roman Catholic priests and Christian pastors also participated. Surviving relatives and other mourners wept. Navy sailors fired a three-volley rifle salute.
The sailors went down with the 1,200-ton Cheonan near the tense western sea border with North Korea on March 26 shortly after it was torn apart by what investigators believe was an underwater blast from outside the ship.
Fifty-eight sailors survived the sinking. The bodies of 40 of the sailors were recovered, while six others remained unaccounted for and are presumed dead. The retrieved bodies were cremated.
The funeral took place at the 2nd Fleet headquarters in Pyeongtaek, about 45 miles (70 kilometers) south of Seoul, the Cheonan's home base. The ceremony was to be followed by burial later April 21st. The events cap five days of official mourning that has mixed outpourings of grief and sympathy with anger at possible North Korean involvement.
The Cheonan was on a routine patrol before it split in two and sank near the disputed western sea border, a scene of three bloody sea battles between the rival Koreas that remain locked in a state of war since their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce instead of a peace treaty.
An estimated 400,000 people have reportedly visited mourning locations set up across the country to pay respects.
North Korea has waged a slew of attacks against South Korea, including a 1987 downing of a South Korean passenger plane that killed all 115 people on board, one of the reasons the country is suspected of involvement.
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