S. Korea suspends search for sailors
Source: Agencies |
April 1, 2010, Thursday
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STORMY conditions forced the South Korean military to suspend the search for 46 sailors missing since a mysterious blast blew apart their navy ship last week, officials said yesterday, a day after a diver died during the rescue mission.
Defense Ministry spokesman Won Tae-jae said divers could not go down to the wreckage of the Cheonan due to the prospect of rain, high winds and a swift current. Parts of the ship remained moored in the rough Yellow Sea near Baengnyeong Island, just south of the two Koreas' maritime border.
Divers managed to get down to the section where sailors are believed trapped but heard no signs of life inside, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said. They failed to open a door in the stern on Tuesday, Rear Admiral Lee Ki-sik said.
Also on Tuesday, a 53-year-old diver who lost consciousness during a rescue attempt died and another was treated for injuries.
The sailors' families who gathered at a naval base south of Seoul cried and yelled as they demanded authorities step up the search operation.
An explosion ripped the 1,200-ton ship apart on Friday night during a routine patrol, officials said. Fifty-eight crew members, including the captain, were rescued.
Military officials say the exact cause of the explosion remains unclear, and US and South Korean officials say there is no evidence of North Korean involvement.
An unidentified North Korean economic official in the Chinese town of Dandong denied North Korea's involvement in the blast, Yonhap news agency reported.
A North Korean diplomat in Beijing said he had no information.
However, Defense Minister Kim Tae-young told lawmakers earlier in the week that a floating mine dispatched from North Korea was one possible explanation for the blast. A mine left over from the 1950-53 Korean War may also have struck the ship, he said.
The military has not ruled out the possibility of a torpedo attack, Navy Chief of Staff Kim Sung-chan said on Tuesday.
It could also be the work of a suicide attacker, a North Korean defector who once worked for the regime's spy agency said.
North Korea operates suicide squads known as "human torpedoes," Chang Jin-seong, a poet who fled North Korea in 2004, wrote on his blog. "Marines are trained to drive the bombs toward the target."
The Chosun Ilbo newspaper said a North Korean submersible or semi-submersible vessel disappeared around the time of the ship's sinking and has since returned to its base north of Baengnyeong Island. The report cited an unidentified government source with access to satellite pictures. The source said the disappearance wasn't unusual and that it would be difficult to connect it to Friday's explosion.
Won said the Defense Ministry had no comment.
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