UNSC to discuss sunken South Korean ship

South Korean warship, which allegedly was sunk by North Korea in March


Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=134028§ionid=351020405


The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) will meet to discuss a draft declaration on the March 26 sinking of a South Korean warship.

The UNSC was to meet late on Thursday to discuss the alleged sinking of the Cheonan by North Korea and issue a statement on the event, AFP reported.

After a weeks-long investigation, Seoul announced that North Korea was responsible for the sinking, while Pyongyang has strongly denied any involvement.

North Korea has called for a new joint probe by both Koreas "to verify objectively the truth of the incident," warning that its military forces will respond, should the Security Council question or condemn the country over the incident.

The sinking of the Cheonan warship, which killed 46 sailors near the North Korean maritime border, has intensified tension in the Korean Peninsula.

The sinking marked the worst naval disaster in South Korea's history since the Korean War (1950-53) -- which ended in an armistice signed on 27 July 1953.

The five permanent members of UNSC are divided in the issue of Korean warship.

While South Korea and the US are trying to draw a strongly worded statement from the Council, China and Russia have been reluctant to identify North Korea as the offender.

China, the North's closest ally, has opposed harsh sanctions and direct condemnation of Pyongyang for the incident and has recently urged the US and South Korea to scrap their plans to hold drills in the Yellow Sea in a show of force against the North.

North Korea warns UN over ship sinking

Source: Al Jazeera
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2010/06/201061651735694339.html


North Korea has said that any action against the country by the UN Security Council over the sinking of a South Korean warship will be met by a military "follow-up".

The comments came by Sin Son-ho, the country's ambassador, come after South Korean officials presented evidence to the Security Council on Tuesday, claiming the North torpedoed and sank the Cheonan in March.

Forty-six sailors were killed in the attack, for which the North has denied responsibility.

Sin said that "if the Security Council release any documents against us condemning or questioning us in any document, then myself, a diplomat, I can do nothing, but the follow-up measures will be carried out by our military forces".

Sin, speaking at a rare news conference in New York on Wednesday, was asked if he meant that North Korea would take military action in response to the adoption of any resolution or statement by the council.

"I told you that if any action is taken by Security Council against us, I lose my job," he said.

"Military will have its own job, I mean follow-up. I gave you the answer. You can prejudge what is the meaning I have told you."

'Reckless manoeuvres'

Sin also cautioned that the situation on the Korean peninsula remained tense due to what he called the "reckless manoeuvres" of the South.

He said it was "a touch-and-go situation that war may break out at any time", saying that "our people and our army will smash our aggressors".

Delegations from the South and North presented the Security Council on Monday with their positions on the events of March 26.

Claude Heller, the Security Cuncil's president and Mexican ambassador, said after the two separate informal meetings that council members were gravely concerned about the incident and urged both sides to "refrain from any act that could escalate tensions in the region".

He did not say who was to blame.

According to council diplomats, South Korea is hoping the 15-nation body will rebuke the North.

But China, the North's sole major ally, has a veto on the council and is reluctant to support anything that would upset Pyongyang.

Sin reiterated Pyongyang's position that the South's allegations about March 26 are a "complete fabrication" and demanded that the North be allowed to send its own investigation crew to the site of the incident.

"This is indeed a funny story," he said of South Korea's investigation of the sinking. "Some kind of fiction."

"If the South Koreans have nothing to hide, there is no reason for them not to accept our inspection group."

Sin presented a lengthy rebuttal of the South Korean evidence that Seoul says proved the North's military torpedoed the Cheonan.

He suggested that the actual cause of the sinking may have been rocks in the water.

"I am not here to blame anyone but to clarify what happened," he said.

Lengthy rebuttal

Sin also dismissed the idea that the investigation of the incident was international, saying that the foreign participants played no more than a symbolic role in what was essentially a South Korean investigation.

According to Sin, the evidence against Pyongyang was "fabricated in pursuit of political objectives".

Those objectives included influencing South Korea's recent elections and poisoning North Korea's good ties with China, he said.

The US, Sin said, also benefited politically from the incident, as it helped force Japan to back down from previous demands that the US close a military base on the island of Okinawa.

PJ Crowley, the US state department spokesman, dismissed Sin's comments about a possible military response as "the same kind of provocative behaviour typical of North Korea".

South Korea vows to boost military

Source: Al Jazeera
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2010/06/20106145186986902.html

South Korea's president has ordered a strengthening of the country's armed forces in response to the sinking of one of its warships in March.

In a speech on Monday, Lee Myung-bak said the country needed to raise its military readiness and respond sternly to the sinking of the Cheonan patrol ship or risk another provocation from North Korea.

"If we fail to sternly respond to North Korea's wrongdoing in cooperation with the international community and build up solid military readiness, a second and third provocation like the Cheonan incident can occur anytime," he said.

Last month an international investigation concluded that the ship was sunk by a North Korean torpedo, killing 46 South Korean sailors.

North Korea has flatly denied the allegation and warned that any retaliation by the South would trigger war on the peninsula.

The UN Security Council is expected to meet in New York later on Monday to discuss a South Korean request for further sanctions against the North over the sinking.

According to the foreign ministry in Seoul, North Korea also planned to address the council about the sinking.

Relations between North and South Korea have plunged to their lowest level in years following the incident.

South Korea has already taken a number of punitive measures against North Korea, including resuming cross-border propaganda broadcasts that were suspended in 2004.

North Korea has said it will blow up banks of loudspeakers being built by South Korean soldiers along the heavily-fortified frontier.

At the weekend a statement from North Korea's military command threatened to turn the South Korean capital into a "sea of flame".

In his speech on Monday Lee also said he would hold some South Korean naval officers responsible for the sinking of the Cheonan, although he not specify who.

His comments came a day after South Korea's top military officer offered to retire amid criticism over alleged negligence ahead of the sinking.

North Korea appoints new premier

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=129509§ionid=351020405



North Korea has reshuffled its top leadership, appointing the brother-in-law of leader Kim Jong-Il to a powerful military post and sacking its premier.

At an extraordinary session of the North Korean parliament, Choe Yong Rim, a brother-in-law of leader Kim Jong-Il was named Monday as the new premier, replacing Kim Yong-Il, the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.

In a second appointment, Jang Song Taek, another brother-in-law and key ally of North Korea's leader who is believed to favor an hereditary succession, was promoted to vice-chairmanship of the National Defense Commission, the most powerful organ of government in North Korea.

These changes come as North and South Korea continue to face-off over the sinking of a South Korean warship in March which cost 46 lives and has been referred by the government in Seoul to the UN Security Council.

It was not immediately known why Kim Yong-Il, elected to the post in 2007, was removed in favor of Choe, but the move has been seen as consolidating Kim Jong-Il's grip on power and paving the way for the succession of his youngest son, 28-year-old Kim Jong-Un.

Functions of the North Korean premiership are to oversee economic policy and appoint ministers who are then confirmed by parliament.

KCNA said three vice-premiers were also sacked along with the ministers in charge of light industry, food supply and physical culture and sports.

North Korea scraps peace accord

Source: Al Jazeera
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2010/05/201052761847357112.html


North Korea has said that it is scrapping a 2004 accord aimed at preventing accidental armed clashes with South Korea, as tensions continued to rise over the sinking of a warship.

In a notice to the South's armed forces on Thursday, the North's general chiefs of staff warned of an immediate attack if the South violates the disputed Yellow Sea border.

It also said that it will ban South Korean personnel and vehicles from entering a joint industrial park at the North Korean border town of Kaesong.

Meanwhile, a fleet of South Korean warships fired artillery and dropped anti-submarine bombs in a large-scale military exercise off the west coast of the country.

The navy said 10 warships, including a 3,500-tonne destroyer, fired artillery and dropped anti-submarine bombs as part of the one-day exercise.

Rising tensions

The developments came amid tensions on the divided peninsula that have risen since a team of international investigators said last week that a torpedo fired by a North Korean submarine tore apart and sank a South Korean warship on March 26, killing 46 sailors.

But the North accused South Korea's government of falsely blaming it for the sinking, partly to help the ruling party in local elections due to be held next week.
Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, during a visit to South Korea on Wednesday, called on the international community to issue a strong response to the sinking of the ship.

"This was an unacceptable provocation by North Korea and the international community has a responsibility and a duty to respond," Clinton said after talks with South Korean leaders in Seoul, the South's capital.

The sinking of the Cheonan "requires a strong but measured response", she said, adding that the US would consult South Korea and members of the UN security council on what the appropriate action would be.

Al Jazeera's Tony Birtley, reporting from Seoul, said Clinton's three to four hour stopover was to show US solidarity with South Korea and to brief officials there on what China - where Clinton had just visited - was saying about the situation.

Chinese influence

China, the North's only major ally who in effect bankrolls its economy, has studiously tried to keep out of the fray, urging calm and refusing to voice support for the international report on the Cheonan sinking.

On Wednesday, China's foreign ministry repeated calls for calm and restraint, with Zhang Zhijun, the vice-foreign minister, saying China had no first-hand information on the sinking.

"We have always believed that dialogue is better than confrontation," Zhang said.

Most analysts doubt either side would deliberately risk a war, but say there is a serious risk that small skirmishes along the heavily-defended border could turn into a broader conflict.

Some worry pushing Kim Jong-il, the North Korean leader, too far may leave him little choice but to fight back to try to save his family's more than 60-year hold over the destitute country as he tries to secure the leadership succession for his youngest son.