North Korea Suspected In Blast That Sank South Korean Warship

[Purveyor]

SEOUL (Reuters) – The likelihood North Korea sank a South Korean naval ship near their disputed border rose when Seoul said on Friday an external explosion probably caused the ship to split in two, killing dozens.

South Korea's defense minister said this month the 1,200-tonne Cheonan may have been hit by a torpedo, immediately putting suspicion on North Korea and stoking concerns that the incident could start a conflict on the long divided peninsula.

"Conclusively, after a visual inspection, there is a higher chance of an outer explosion than an internal one," Yoon Duk-yong, a top investigation official, told a news conference.

Local media is increasingly pinning the blame on North Korea, in the absence of any other likely reasons for the explosion which sank the corvette late last month, thought to have killed 46 sailors.

Yoon said the twisting of metal from the salvaged stern that was raised on Thursday indicated the blast had come from outside but the team will wait until the rest of the ship was raised and other evidence gathered before reaching a final conclusion.

"The Cheonan was also halved in the middle. Therefore, it is highly likely that a torpedo fired from a submarine or mine destroyed the ship," military expert and former submarine captain Jung Sung wrote in the JoongAng Ilbo daily.

MORE...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100416/ts_nm/us_korea_ship