NOW JAPAN WANT ON THE ACTION : Japan condemns torpedo attack

North Korea is gonna be pissed... They HATE JAPAN with a passion...

[link to www.asahi.com]

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama on Thursday condemned North Korea for the sinking of the South Korean warship Cheonan and promised to back Seoul in its escalating confrontation with the communist regime.

A report published Thursday by an international team of military and civilian officials on the sinking of the warship concluded that an underwater explosion caused by a North Korean torpedo sank the vessel on March 26. Forty-six crew members are listed as dead or missing.

The investigators said the attack could only have been carried out by a North Korean mini-submarine or boat.

In a statement, Hatoyama said: "We strongly support South Korea. The act by North Korea is unforgivable and we strongly condemn it."

Pyongyang flatly rejected the report. The state-run Korean Central News Agency quoted a spokesman for the National Defense Commission describing it as "a fabrication."

South Korea is expected to work with Japan and the United States in seeking further sanctions against North Korea at the United Nations Security Council.

Hatoyama told reporters Thursday evening that Japan should take the lead if South Korea seeks a U.N. resolution.

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak called Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on Thursday and asked for international cooperation on the matter.

Lee reportedly told Rudd: "It has become clear that this was an act of military provocation by North Korea. We will take resolute countermeasures."

According to the investigative panel, a simulation of the attack was conducted based on the physical evidence of the break-up of the Cheonan, seismic and sound waves recorded at the time of the sinking, and eyewitness accounts.

The modeling showed that an underwater explosion was caused by between 200 and 300 kilograms of powerful explosives detonated between six and nine meters below the water line. The impact had been at slightly back of center on the port side of the ship.

On May 15, the investigators recovered parts of the screw, propulsion motor, and control mechanism of a torpedo near the site of the sinking. The parts matched design illustrations for a torpedo that North Korea has included in a weapons export catalog.

The parts also carried the Korean letters for "No. 1" and were similar to those found on North Korean torpedoes recovered in the past by the South Korean military. The panel concluded that the torpedo was manufactured in North Korea.

The investigators said that the depth of the sea at the scene of the attack led them to conclude that a mini-sub or boat had been responsible. They said mini-subs or boats and a larger support ship were found to have left a North Korean naval base two to three days before the attack, and to have returned two to three days after the Cheonan sank.

South Korean government officials called the panel's analysis "scientific and objective," but it is unclear whether the report will convince the Chinese, whose cooperation will be vital in South Korea's attempt to apply further pressure on Pyongyang.

China welcomed North Korean leader Kim Jong Il this month for his first visit to China in four years. Chinese officials said they had received reassurances from Kim that North Korea was interested in moving toward the resumption of the six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons program.

South Korea is unlikely to take its seat at any six-party talks for the time being, but China is expected to emphasize its role as host of the talks.

South Korea is rife with speculation about why North Korea might have decided to attack.

The most popular explanation is that the attack was designed to help the North Korean military reinforce its status in the country.

On April 22, South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan linked the Cheonan attack with a gunfight in the Yellow Sea last November.

In the November incident, a North Korean naval ship that had encroached on maritime border lines was repulsed and seriously damaged by the South Korean Navy.

Three days later, the North Korean military vowed revenge.

The North Korean government also appears to have been destabilized by economic confusion caused by a disastrous decision to revalue the North Korean currency. That has led to concerns in some parts of the regime that Kim Jong Il will not be able to smoothly transfer power to his third son and anointed successor, Jong Un.

South Korean government officials said they had not detected any unusual activity in North Korea's government, such as the questioning of front-line military commanders. The South Korean officials said this suggested that Kim Jong Il had approved of the torpedo attack beforehand.

The sinking of the Cheonan was the deadliest attack on South Koreans to be blamed on Pyongyang since the 1987 bombing of a Korean Air jet that killed 115 people.