[ProomoSam]

May 20, 2010

SINKING OF S.KOREAN SHIP
N.Korea torpedoed warship



Agiant offshore crane salvages the bow section of the South Korean naval ship Cheonan off Baengnyeong Island, South Korea. -- PHOTO: AP

SEOUL - A TORPEDO fired by a North Korean submarine sank a South Korean warship with the loss of 46 lives, investigators said on Thursday. 'The evidence points overwhelmingly to the conclusion that the torpedo was fired by a North Korean submarine,' the multinational team said in its report on the March 26 sinking near the disputed inter-Korean border. 'There is no other plausible explanation.'

Torpedo parts salvaged from the Yellow Sea 'perfectly match' a type of torpedo which North Korea has offered for export, the report said. A marking in Korea's Hangeul script was found on one recovered section, and matched markings on a stray North Korean torpedo recovered by the South seven years ago. The communist North overnight again denied involvement in the attack, the worst cross-border provocation since the downing of a South Korean airliner in 1987 with the loss of 115 lives.

It said the South was using the 'fiction' as an excuse to push cross-border relations towards catastrophe. But the investigators, including experts from the United States, Australia, Britain and Sweden, laid out apparently damning evidence of its involvement. The ship was split apart and sank due to a shockwave and bubble effect produced by the underwater explosion of a 250kg homing North Korean torpedo, the report said.

It said torpedo parts recovered by a dredging ship on May 15th - including the propellers, propulsion motor and a steering section - 'perfectly match the schematics of the CHT-02D torpedo included in introductory brochures provided to foreign countries by North Korea for export purposes'. The report said the North has about 70 submarines and torpedoes of various capabilities. It said the attack was likely carried out by a small submarine. -- AFP