defense minister says torpedo blast likely sank warship near sea border with NKorea

SEOUL, South Korea  An explosion caused by a torpedo likely tore apart and sank a South Korean warship near the North Korean border, Seoul’s defense minister said Sunday, while declining to assign blame for the blast as suspicion increasingly falls on Pyongyang.Defense Minister Kim Tae-young said an underwater explosion appeared to have ripped apart the vessel, and a torpedo blast seemed the most likely cause. Investigators who examined salvaged wreckage separately announced Sunday that a close-range, external explosion likely sank it.

“Basically, I think the bubble jet effect caused by a heavy torpedo is the most likely” cause, Kim told reporters. The bubble jet effect refers to the rapidly expanding bubble an underwater blast creates and the subsequent destructive column of water unleashed.Kim, however, did not speculate on who may have fired the weapon and said an investigation was ongoing and it’s still too early to determine the cause.

Soon after the disaster, Kim told lawmakers that a North Korean torpedo was one of the likely scenarios, but the government has been careful not to blame the North outright, and Pyongyang has denied its involvement.As investigations have pointed to an external explosion as the cause of the sinking, however, suspicion of the North has grown, given the country’s history of provocation and attacks on the South.

The Cheonan was on a routine patrol on March 26 when the unexplained explosion split it in two in one of South Korea’s worst naval disasters. Forty bodies have been recovered so far, but six crew members are still unaccounted for and are presumed dead.
The site of the sinking is near where the rival Koreas fought three times since 1999, most recently a November clash that left one North Korean soldier dead and three others wounded. The two Koreas are still technically at war because their 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.

Also Sunday, investigators said a preliminary investigation of the front part of the 1,200-ton ship – retrieved the day before – pointed to an external explosion.Chief investigator Yoon Duk-yong told reporters that an inspection of the hull pointed to an underwater explosion. He appeared to support the bubble jet effect theory, saying, “It is highly likely that a non-contact explosion was the case rather than a contact explosion.”

But he, too, said it was too early to determine what caused the explosion.Earlier Sunday, Prime Minister Chung Un-chan said South Korea will take “stern” action against whoever was behind the explosion as the country started a five-day funeral for the 46 dead and missing sailors. Makeshift alters were set up in Seoul and other major cities to allow citizens to pay their respect.

“We will remember all of you in the name of the Republic of Korea to let you keep alive in our hearts,” said Chung, clad in a black suit and tie. The 46 sailors will be promoted by one rank and awarded posthumous medals, he said.In Pyongyang, the North marked the 78th anniversary of the founding of the country’s military Sunday with a vow to “mercilessly” punish any hostile moves by “the imperialist enemies,” a term it uses when referring to the U.S.

Pyongyang routinely accuses the U.S. of plotting to invade the North, despite the repeated denials by Washington.”If the imperialist enemies intrude into” the North’s territory, “its army will beat them back at a stroke by mercilessly showering bombs and shells on them,” the North’s main Rodong Sinmun newspaper said in an editorial carried by the official Korean Central News Agency. It didn’t mention the ship sinking.(AP)

Kim Jong Il An American Christian missionary for South Korea,seoul

Kim Jong Il

SEOUL, South Korea  An American Christian missionary slipped into isolated North Korea on Christmas Day, shouting that he brought God’s love and carrying a letter urging leader Kim Jong Il to step down and free all political prisoners, an activist said.Robert Park, 28, crossed a poorly guarded stretch of the frozen Tumen River that separates North Korea from China, according to a member of the Seoul-based group Pax Koreana, which promotes human rights in the North. The group plans to release footage of the crossing Sunday, he said.”I am an American citizen. I brought God’s love. God loves you and God bless you,” Park reportedly said in fluent Korean as he crossed over Friday near the northeastern city of Hoeryong, according to the activist, citing two people who watched Park cross and filmed it. The activist spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation.No information has emerged about what happened next to Park, who is of Korean descent. The communist country’s state-run media was silent. The State Department and the U.S. Embassy in Beijing said they were aware of the incident but had no details.

“The U.S. government places the highest priority on the protection and welfare of American citizens,” said State Department spokesman Andrew Laine.The illegal entry could complicate Washington’s efforts to coax North Korea back to negotiations aimed at

its nuclear disarmament. Park’s crossing also comes just months after the country freed two U.S. journalists, who were arrested along the Tumen and sentenced to 12 years of hard labor for trespassing and “hostile acts.” They were released to former President Bill Clinton on a visit to the isolated country in August. North Korea and the United States do not have diplomatic relations.

Park, from Tucson, Ariz., carried a letter to North Korean leader Kim Jong Il calling for major changes to his totalitarian regime, according to the activist from Pax Koreana.”Please open your borders so that we may bring food, provisions, medicine, necessities, and assistance to those who are struggling to survive,” said the letter, according to a copy posted on the conservative group’s Web site. “Please close down all concentration camps and release all political prisoners today.”North Korea holds some 154,000 political prisoners in six large camps across the country, according South Korean government estimates. The North has long been regarded as having one of the world’s worst human rights records, but it denies the existence of prison camps.

The activist said Park, who he described as not belonging to Pax Koreana, also carried a separate written appeal calling for Kim to immediately step down, noting starvation, torture and deaths in North Korean political prison camps.North Korea’s criminal code punishes illegal entry with up to three years in prison. But that could be the least of the missionary’s problems in a country where defectors say dissent is swiftly wiped out and the regime sees all trespassers as potential spies.

Kim wields absolute power in the communist state of 24 million people where he and his late father – the country’s founder Kim Il Sung – are the object of an intense personality cult.Other activists said Park had become known over the last year in Seoul human rights circles. They suggested that his passion for helping North Koreans may have blinded him to the consequences of his actions.

Hackers steal South Korean-US military secrets

hacker

SEOUL, South Korea’s military said Friday it was investigating a hacking attack that netted secret defense plans with the United States and may have been carried out by North Korea.The suspected hacking occurred late last month when a South Korean officer failed to remove a USB device when he switched a military computer from a restricted-access intranet to the Internet, Defense Ministry spokesman Won Tae-jae said.

The USB device contained a summary of plans for military operations by South Korean and U.S. troops in case of war on the Korean peninsula. Won said the stolen documents were not a full text of the operational plans, but about an 11-page document used to brief military officials.

Won said authorities have not ruled out the possibility that Pyongyang may have been involved in the hacking attack by using a Chinese IP address – the Web equivalent of a street address or phone number.

The Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported, citing the January edition of its sister magazine Monthly Chosun, that hackers used a Chinese IP address and that North Korea is suspected of involvement. The Monthly Chosun cited South Korea’s National Intelligence Service and Defense Security Command.

Yonhap news agency also reported the hackers used a Chinese IP address. It said the North’s involvement was not immediately confirmed, also citing military officials it did not identify.

Officials at the NIS – South Korea’s main spy agency – were not immediately available for comment.The U.S. stations 28,500 troops in South Korea to deter any potential North Korean aggression. The two Koreas have remained technically at war since the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.

“As a matter of policy, we do not comment on operational planning or intelligence matters, nor would we confirm details pertaining to any security investigation,” said David Oten, a spokesman for the U.S. military in Seoul.

The latest case came months after hackers launched high-profile cyberattacks that caused Web outages on prominent government-run sites in the U.S. and South Korea. Affected sites include those of the White House and the South’s presidential Blue House.

The IP address that triggered the Web attacks in July was traced back to North Korea’s Ministry of Post and Telecommunications, the chief of South Korean’s main spy agency reportedly told lawmakers, noting the ministry leased the IP address from China. The spy agency declined to confirm those reports at the time.

South Korean media reported at the time that North Korea runs an Internet warfare unit that tries to hack into U.S. and South Korean military networks to gather confidential information and disrupt service, and the regime has between 500 and 1,000 hacking specialists.

North Korea, one of the world’s most secretive countries, is believed to have a keen interest in information technology, while tightly controlling access for ordinary citizens.