US, S Korea seek isolation of Pyongyang - DPRK lawyers

PYONGYANG, June 13 (Itar-Tass) - Washington and Seoul have fabricated
the case of sinking of the South Korean Cheonan corvette in order "to
provoke a new spiral of tensions on the Korean Peninsula," the Law
Institute of the Academy of Public Sciences of the Democratic People's
Republic of Korea (DPRK) said in a statement, the North's official Korean
Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.
The statement says that the United States has decided within the
framework of such policy to bring this incident to the international level
as it seeks "isolation of DPRK." At present the United States and South
Korea are building up their presence in the Yellow Sea and "are launching
a hysterical diplomatic campaign seeking the toughening of sanctions
against the people's republic." In the view of North Korean lawyers, "such
activity resembles the situation that emerged before the American troops'
invasion of Iraq."
It is said in the statement that in the event of an aggression from
the United States and South Korea the response of the DPRK Army and people
that will rise for the defence of their country's sovereignty "will be
merciless."
As many as 46 people died in the sinking of the South Korean corvette
Cheonan in the Yellow Sea on March 26.
According to KCNA, a spokesman for the National Defence Commission of
the DPRK had already officially clarified the principled stand of the army
and people of the DPRK on the sinking case of the South Korean puppet
navy's warship in waters of the West Sea of Korea.
He also dismissed the assertion of the South Korean group of traitors
that the ship was sunk by a torpedo attack of the DPRK and the "results of
investigation" faked up to support it as a sheer anti-DPRK "conspiratorial
farce" and a "charade."
The political, social, academic and press circles of South Korea,
favouring the principled stand of the DPRK, are growing increasingly
suspicious about the "results of investigation" announced by the "joint
investigation team" in which it claimed it was done on an objective and
scientific basis KCNA reported.
There is even strong opinion that the ship was sunk by the US
Not only China closely following the situation around it but also
Russia which dispatched an investigation group to the spot of south Korea
assert that it is difficult to find out any evidence proving that the ship
was sunk by a torpedo of the DPRK, the agency said.
According to KCNA, the group of traitors, however, went the lengths of
bringing the investigation results to the UN, the far-fetched assertion
that the ship sinking was linked with the DPRK. The spokesman gave the
following answer to a question raised by KCNA Friday in this regard:
The development proves that the group of traitors has finally gone
into action against the DPRK at the instigation of its master, defying our
warnings.
Accordingly, the army and people of the DPRK will take merciless
counter-actions as it had already clarified internally and externally
because the group dared opt for infringing upon the dignity and security
of the army and people of the DPRK and its supreme interests.
The army of the DPRK is a powerful revolutionary army of Mt. Paektu
which does not make any empty talk, it said.
Availing ourselves of this opportunity, we will closely watch once
again how the UNSC whose basic mission is to ensure global peace and
security will react to the "conspiratorial farce" and "charade"
orchestrated by the group of traitors. People still remember that the UN,
yielding to the US high-handed and arbitrary practices, recognized the
"existence of weapons of mass destruction," a fiction, and okayed its
gangster-like armed invasion of Iraq.
ROKS Cheonan (PCC-772) was a South Korean Pohang-class corvette of the
Republic of Korea Navy (ROKN), commissioned in 1989. On 26 March 2010, it
broke in two and sank near the sea border with North Korea. An
international investigation concluded that the Cheonan was sunk by a
torpedo launched by a North Korean Yeono class miniature submarine.
Cheonan was launched in November 1989 from Hyundai Heavy Industries.
The ship's primary mission was coastal patrol, with an emphasis on
anti-submarine operations. The Cheonan was one of the ships involved in
the First Battle of Yeonpyeong in 1999. It is also known that the ship
suffered slight damage on the rear in the First Battle of Yeonpyeong. The
ship had been scheduled for decommissioning in 2019.
On 26 March 2010, an explosion occurred near the rear of the ship
causing it to break in two. The cause of this explosion was not
immediately determined, although experts said that an external explosion
was likely, as the structure of the ship was bent upwards, rather than
evenly splitting as would have happened if metal fatigue had been the
cause, and that an internal explosion was unlikely, as explosives on board
the ship were undamaged.
The 1,200 tonne ship started sinking at 21:20 local time (12:20 UTC)
about 1 nautical mile (1.9 km) off the south-west coast of Baengnyeong
Island in the Yellow Sea. The ship had a crew of 104 men at the time of
sinking, and a total of 58 crew were rescued. Another 46 crew were
unaccounted for. Cheonan's Captain, Commander Choi Won-il, said that the
ship broke into two and the stern sank within five minutes after the
explosion and while he was still assessing the situation. On 17 April
2010, North Korea denied any involvement in the sinking of Cheonan.
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