(4th LD) S. Korea raises remaining half of sunken naval ship
By Chang Jae-soon
SEOUL, April 24 (Yonhap) -- South Korea retrieved the remaining half of a sunken naval ship and the body of a missing sailor trapped inside Saturday, with experts saying the wreckage shows signs that the vessel was dealt a blow from outside amid suspicions of a North Korean attack.
The 1,200-ton patrol ship Cheonan mysteriously broke in half and sank on March 26 near the Yellow Sea border with North Korea. The ship's broken stern was raised last week, and investigators immediately blamed an unexplained "external explosion" as the most likely cause.
On Saturday, the vessel's bow was salvaged, and part of its bottom
appeared to have been blown off diagonally, informed military sources said. The images of the ship's two broken pieces, if put together, show that the vessel's central bottom is shaped like an inverted V, an indication that it was struck by a blow from outside, they said.
Also gone were the ship's chimney and its radar mast that were on the top center of the ship.
Salvage workers found the body of petty officer first class Park Sung-kyun, 20, after a crane raised the bow from the sea. The wreck was later placed on a barge, and naval rescue workers combed it for other missing sailors as investigators sought clues as to what tore the vessel apart.
Forty sailors were confirmed dead but six others are still listed as missing.
"An explosion is believed to have occurred near where Park was found," a military official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. But the official declined to comment further on a possible cause.
North Korea's involvement was suspected from the beginning as the site of the sinking lies near where the navies of the two Koreas fought bloody gun battles in 1999, 2002 and most recently in November last year.
But the communist North has flatly rejected allegations of its involvement as fabrication.
The Navy planned to move the salvaged bow to a naval base in Pyeongtaek, some 70 kilometers south of Seoul, later for a detailed inspection. Examining both of the broken-off sides of the ship could provide more clues into the deadly disaster.
In an effort to improve the transparency of the probe, South Korea has asked foreign countries to send experts to conduct joint research. Specialists from the United States and Australia have already been working in South Korea, and Sweden and Britain also pledged to send experts.
North Korea's involvement, if confirmed, would deal a serious blow to the already troubled relations between the two divided states and cast a pall over international efforts to reopen long-stalled disarmament talks on Pyongyang's nuclear arms programs.
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak has vowed to discover the cause of the sinking, respond sternly according to the investigation's results, and make South Korea's armed forces stronger, though he cautioned against rushing hastily to a conclusion without clear evidence.
On Friday, North Korea accused the South of trying to link the regime to the sinking and making the situation on the divided peninsula reach "such extreme phase that it is at the crossroads of a war or peace."
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned the North against any provocations.
"I hope that there is no talk of war, there is no action or miscalculation that could provoke a response that might lead to conflict," Clinton said at a NATO foreign ministers' meeting in Tallinn, Estonia, Friday. "That's not in anyone's interest."
In New York, the U.S. representative for North Korea policy, Stephen Bosworth, said he is still optimistic on the reopening of the North Korea nuclear talks despite the ship sinking.
"As we look ahead today, we of course face a set of uncertainties in the short-term as we await the results of the investigation of the sinking of the South Korean naval vessel," Bosworth told a seminar in New York.
"But looking beyond that I think that there is reason to believe that multilateral engagement remains the essential condition for making progress on greater stability, denuclearization, peace and prosperity on the Korean peninsula," he said.
jschang@yna.co.kr
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