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South Korea raising navy ship that sank near North
Source: Agencies |
April 15, 2010, Thursday
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SOUTH Korea's military began lifting today the stern of a naval ship in order to determine what caused a blast that sank it last month near a contested border with North Korea,.
South Korea's defence minister said this month that the 1,200-tonne Cheonan may have been hit by a North Korean torpedo, stoking concerns that the incident could start a conflict
The ship's stern is also thought to hold the bodies of most of the 46 sailors missing after the ship sank.
The salvage operation comes as tensions on the troubled peninsula have increased by the North freezing assets of a South Korean firm at a joint tourism project north of the border once hailed as a symbol of cooperation.
"The entire operation from the start of the pull up to water drainage, loading, and the recovery of missing soldiers is expected to take roughly 11 hours," the Defence Ministry said in a statement.
Seoul has few appealing options if the North was behind the sinking, but would not likely take an aggressive stance because it could escalate into major conflict that would harm the South's interests, said Andrei Lankov, an expert on the North.
"Such raids would scare investors away from South Korea and damage its financial rating," he wrote in a newspaper opinion piece last week in the International Herald Tribune.
The ship sinking could also complicate the resumption of stalled international talks on ending North Korea's atomic arms programme in return for aid to prop up its broken economy, experts said.
South Korea's defence minister said this month that the 1,200-tonne Cheonan may have been hit by a North Korean torpedo, stoking concerns that the incident could start a conflict
The ship's stern is also thought to hold the bodies of most of the 46 sailors missing after the ship sank.
The salvage operation comes as tensions on the troubled peninsula have increased by the North freezing assets of a South Korean firm at a joint tourism project north of the border once hailed as a symbol of cooperation.
"The entire operation from the start of the pull up to water drainage, loading, and the recovery of missing soldiers is expected to take roughly 11 hours," the Defence Ministry said in a statement.
Seoul has few appealing options if the North was behind the sinking, but would not likely take an aggressive stance because it could escalate into major conflict that would harm the South's interests, said Andrei Lankov, an expert on the North.
"Such raids would scare investors away from South Korea and damage its financial rating," he wrote in a newspaper opinion piece last week in the International Herald Tribune.
The ship sinking could also complicate the resumption of stalled international talks on ending North Korea's atomic arms programme in return for aid to prop up its broken economy, experts said.
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