South Korea vows prudent response to ship sinking

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http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/reuters/100521/world/international_us_korea_north

South Korea vows prudent response to ship sinking

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36 minutes ago

By Jack Kim

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's President Lee Myung-bak held a rare emergency

National Security Council meeting on Friday and said Seoul would be prudent in

responding to North Korea's " military provocation " in sinking one of its naval

ships.

South Korea said on Thursday it had overwhelming evidence that a North Korean

submarine had entered its waters in March and attacked the Cheonan corvette,

killing 46 sailors.

North Korea on Friday kept up its defiant response to the accusation, saying the

peninsula was heading toward war and it was ready to tear up all agreements with

the South.

" It was a military provocation and violation of the U.N. Charter and the truce

agreement, " Lee, whose 2- years in office have seen relations with the North

turn increasingly frosty, said in a statement released by the presidential Blue

House.

" Since this case is very serious and has a grave importance, we cannot afford to

have a slightest mistake and will be very prudent in all response measures we

take. "

Yonhap News also reported South Korea and the United States were considering

upgrading the alert status on North Korea as tensions build.

" From this time on, we will regard the situation as a phase of war and will be

responding resolutely to all problems in North-South relations, " the North's

Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland said in a statement.

" If the South puppet group comes out with 'response' and 'retaliation', we will

respond strongly with ruthless punishment including the total shutdown of

North-South ties, abrogation of the North-South agreement on non-aggression and

abolition of all North-South cooperation projects. "

Seoul has previously made clear that it had no plans for a retaliatory strike,

wary of the impact of a military conflict that would certainly hurt efforts to

consolidate a recovery in Asia's fourth largest economy.

Fear of escalating tension weighed on South Korean financial markets on

Thursday, already worried that investors jumpy about global financial concerns

may pull out their money.

The South Korean won suffered its biggest daily fall against the dollar in 10

months. Stocks closed at their lowest in almost three months. South Korean

financial markets were closed for a public holiday on Friday.

Instead of military action, South Korea has indicated that it would press the

international community to take action, probably imposing more sanctions against

the North.

There is little else it can do. Economic relations have come to a near

standstill since Lee became president apart from a joint factory park just

inside impoverished North Korea, which now has to rely almost entirely on China,

its only major ally.

FREQUENT THREATS

North Korea has frequently threatened to attack Seoul but analysts say that in

the face of a much better equipped South Korean army, backed by some 28,000 U.S.

troops on the peninsula, any major confrontation would be suicidal for the

Pyongyang leadership.

But there are some analysts who warn that the more the North's now frail leader

Kim Jong-il, trying to secure the succession for one of his sons, is pushed into

a corner the greater the risk of clashes.

China has so far maintained its support of the North and said it would make its

own assessment of the investigation into the sinking of the Cheonan.

North Korea said it would send its own investigators to the South to look into

the incident. But Yonhap news agency quoted a South Korean defense ministry

source as saying it had no intention of allowing such a delegation.

Mindful of the tension on the Korean peninsula, U.S. Defense Secretary

Gates and spokesmen for the White House and the U.S. State Department chose

their words carefully in their responses to the report.

" Clearly this was a serious provocation by North Korea and there will definitely

be consequences because of what North Korea has done, " said State Department

spokesman P.J. Crowley.

Gates said the United States was consulting with South Korea, which would decide

what action to take.

U.S. President Barack Obama's administration was talking to South Korea's

neighbors and the U.N. Security Council on what to do next, White House

spokesman Gibbs said.

Japan said it would be difficult to resume nuclear disarmament talks between

five regional powers and the North, and said Washington shared its view that

such negotiations, aimed at aiding Pyongyang in return for a promise to drop its

nuclear arms, were unthinkable.

(Additional reporting by Rhee So-eui; Editing by Thatcher and

)