North Korea again denies sinking South Korean navy ship

Jun 15, 2010, 17:31 GMT

New York - North Korea said Tuesday it has informed the UN Security Council that it was not responsible for the sinking of the South Korean navy vessel that killed 46 sailors in March.

North Korea's UN Ambassador Sin Sing-ho, who met with the 15-nation council on Monday, said at a news conference at UN headquarters that South Korea has rejected his government's demand to send its own investigators to the site where the Cheonan vessel was downed in the West Sea on March 26.

Sin said North Korean investigators from the National Defense Commission can 'clarify' the charge from South Korea.

'If the UN Security Council formally debates this case with only the unilateral 'investigation result' of the south, but without the verification by the Democratic Republic of Korea, which is the victim, it will mean that the Security Council takes the side of one party of dispute while excluding the other,' Sin said.

Pyongyang has repeatedly branded the charge made by the Seoul government a 'fabrication.'

Sin and South Korea's UN Ambassador Park In-kook separately met with the council on Monday to present their positions regarding the Cheonan incident. The council has yet to announce what it would do about the complaint letter from South Korea, which blamed the north for the loss of lives and the navy vessel.

The North Korean ambassador charged that the United States and South Korea are trying to make political gains out of the incident. He noted that Seoul made public the results of its investigation on May 20, the day local elections began in South Korea.

He also charged that the incident could help Washington consolidate its military influence in Northeast Asia involving Japan and South Korea, which host US military bases.

'Today a touch-and-go situation that a war may break out anytime is created on the Korean peninsula due to the reckless military maneuvers of South Korea for 'retaliation and punishment' after the fabrication of the 'investigation result',' Sin said.

Sin's news conference at UN headquarters was the first since the March 26 incident. North Korea has raised serious objections about the investigation conducted by several governments invited by Seoul.

South Korea on June 4 informed the council that the attack was investigated by its own military and an international team of experts from Australia, Canada, Sweden, Britain and the United States.

'Based on material evidence obtained through the scientific and objective investigation, it was determined that the sinking was caused by an underwater explosion by a torpedo made in North Korea,' the letter said.

'The investigation result further established that additional evidence points overwhelmingly to the conclusion that the torpedo was fired by a North Korean submarine,' it said. 'This corroborates that North Korea is responsible for the armed attack.'

The letter said, 'The armed attack by North Korea constitutes a threat to the peace and security on the Korean Peninsula and beyond.'

South Korea asked the council to work out measures that would be 'appropriate to the gravity of the situation.' dpa tn pr Author: JT Nguyen