Seoul decides to hit Pyongyang in the hip pocket
Source: Agencies |
May 25, 2010, Tuesday
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SOUTH Korean President Lee Myung-bak has slashed trade to North Korea and pledged to haul Pyongyang before the United Nations Security Council, vowing yesterday to make Pyongyang "pay a price" for a torpedo attack that killed 46 sailors.
United States President Barack Obama offered his full support for South Korea's moves.
American Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton conferred with China over the next step in what she called a "highly precarious" security situation.
The March 26 sinking of the Cheonan was one of South Korea's worst military disasters since the 1950-53 Korean War.
A torpedo fired from a North Korean submarine tore the ship in two, an international team of investigators concluded last week.
Lee called the attack the latest in a series of provocations from North Korea, and aimed to strike Pyongyang financially by cutting trade with the country.
South Korea has been North Korea's No. 2 trading partner, behind China, and the measure will cost Pyongyang about US$200 million a year, said Lim Eul-chul, a North Korea expert at South Korea's Kyungnam University.
"We have always tolerated North Korea's brutality, time and again. We did so because we have always had a genuine longing for peace on the Korean peninsula," Lee said in a solemn speech to the nation from the halls of the country's War Memorial.
"But now things are different. North Korea will pay a price corresponding to its provocative acts."
He called it a "critical turning point" on the peninsula, still technically in a state of war because the fighting ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.
Pyongyang also disputes the maritime border unilaterally drawn by UN forces at the close of the war, and the Koreas have fought three bloody skirmishes there. The Cheonan went down not far from the Koreas' sea border.
South Korean Defense Minister Kim Tae-young said the US and Seoul would hold anti-submarine military exercises in the waters. The US has 28,500 troops in South Korea.
In Washington, an Obama administration official said military commanders were coordinating with Seoul on how the US can help.
United States President Barack Obama offered his full support for South Korea's moves.
American Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton conferred with China over the next step in what she called a "highly precarious" security situation.
The March 26 sinking of the Cheonan was one of South Korea's worst military disasters since the 1950-53 Korean War.
A torpedo fired from a North Korean submarine tore the ship in two, an international team of investigators concluded last week.
Lee called the attack the latest in a series of provocations from North Korea, and aimed to strike Pyongyang financially by cutting trade with the country.
South Korea has been North Korea's No. 2 trading partner, behind China, and the measure will cost Pyongyang about US$200 million a year, said Lim Eul-chul, a North Korea expert at South Korea's Kyungnam University.
"We have always tolerated North Korea's brutality, time and again. We did so because we have always had a genuine longing for peace on the Korean peninsula," Lee said in a solemn speech to the nation from the halls of the country's War Memorial.
"But now things are different. North Korea will pay a price corresponding to its provocative acts."
He called it a "critical turning point" on the peninsula, still technically in a state of war because the fighting ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.
Pyongyang also disputes the maritime border unilaterally drawn by UN forces at the close of the war, and the Koreas have fought three bloody skirmishes there. The Cheonan went down not far from the Koreas' sea border.
South Korean Defense Minister Kim Tae-young said the US and Seoul would hold anti-submarine military exercises in the waters. The US has 28,500 troops in South Korea.
In Washington, an Obama administration official said military commanders were coordinating with Seoul on how the US can help.
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