North Korea Disputes Role in Sinking, Warns of War


North Korea Disputes Role in Sinking, Warns of War (Update1)
May 28, 2010

May 29 (Bloomberg) -- A North Korean military official disputed findings of a probe that blamed his country for sinking a South Korean warship and warned of war if hostilities break out in the demilitarized zone or the Yellow Sea.

North Korean Major General Pak Rim Su said in Pyongyang yesterday that the international investigation into the March 26 sinking of the Cheonan was biased because it was supervised by the South Korean military and included the U.S., the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported.

“The noisy racket of confrontation with the DPRK kicked up by the group over the sinking of Cheonan is nothing but an act of precipitating its self-destruction as it is an undisguised declaration of war against the DPRK and a hideous criminal act of driving the inter-Korean relations to the state of war,” Pak said, according to KCNA.

DPRK stands for communist North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao avoided any reference yesterday to North Korea’s role in the sinking of the warship in his first public comments since arriving in Seoul for talks with President Lee Myung Bak.

South Korea wants China to accept findings that the North fired a torpedo that sank the vessel, killing 46 sailors. Wen reiterated that China was still considering the evidence. China is North Korea’s top trading partner.

North Korea said on May 25 it will sever all ties with South Korea and expel the South’s workers from a joint industrial zone as “punishment” for accusing it of sinking the warship.

South Korea’s navy this week began exercises off its western coast, including anti-submarine operations involving the firing of depth charges, a military official said. About 10 warships are participating in the two-day drill, the official said, asking not to be identified because of security concerns.