SPECIALIST frogmen are to dive to the wreck of a South Korean frigate sunk by a mysterious explosion as the country’s rattled government tries to find out why the vessel was lost.
The 1,200-tonne warship Cheonan went down amid a string of islands in waters bitterly contested by North Korea. But security officials in Seoul, the South Korean capital, said there was no evidence that the North was to blame.
Financial markets shook when the news first reached the United States, which deploys more than 70,000 military personnel plus large air and sea forces to protect South Korea and Japan from aggression.
However, the State Department in Washington urged caution, despite a stream of strident rhetoric from North Korea’s propaganda machine in the past week. “The navy of the US imperialist aggressor forces and the South Korean puppet navy are busy staging combined naval manoeuvres,” Pyongyang said. “The war hysteria ... has reached an extremely reckless phase.
There was a resounding silence on Friday’s incident from the media in Pyongyang yesterday.
Television and websites in South Korea carried images of relatives grieving for 46 sailors still missing out of the crew of 104. It was the worst disaster in the navy’s recent history.
Temperatures have plunged in the area and it was shrouded by snow flurries as helicopters, ships and divers searched for survivors. Late yesterday a section of the hull could still be seen above water, raising hopes that the men could be alive inside an air pocket. Rescue divers battled strong currents as they tried to get into the ship.
At a nearby naval base, families demanded information, while in Seoul political pressure was mounting to find an explanation.
The ship’s captain, Choi Won-il, was among those rescued and then joined the search for survivors. He said: “There was the sound of an explosion and the ship keeled to the right. We lost power and telecommunications.
“I was trapped in the cabin for five minutes before my colleagues broke the window in and let me out. When I got out, the stern had disappeared.”
Residents of a nearby island, well used to naval and artillery exercises by the rival nations, said they heard an unusually intense burst of naval gunfire for 15 minutes around the time that the ship began to founder after an explosion in its stern.
But sensitive surveillance and satellite data showed there were no North Korean units in the area, leading to speculation that the ship had hit a mine. The defence ministry later said a ship fired at a radar contact that turned out to be birds.
The Cheonan had been on routine patrol near Baengnyeong island, a heavily garrisoned outpost that lies off the North Korean coast. The maritime boundary has been disputed since the ceasefire that ended fighting in the Korean war in 1953.
Vessels from the two sides regularly face off in waters that contain rich crab-fishing grounds coveted by the impoverished northerners.
The rivals fought fatal naval skirmishes in 1999 and 2002.
In the latter clash, four South Korean sailors were killed. Vessels also exchanged fire in the area in 2004 and 2009.
Mindful of North Korea’s tactics of ratcheting up tension, Kim Tae-young, the South’s defence minister, said yesterday that the ship’s loss remained unexplained.
“Another emergency national security meeting has been convened by President Lee Myung-bak — the third one since the incident,” an official said.
The Yellow Sea in the area is only 80ft deep, so the Cheonan can be salvaged. Defence officials said that could take three weeks.
Since early this year North Korea has been test-firing coastal artillery into the waters near the island. Shells had been fired earlier on Friday, said local news reports.
Inevitably, the episode is mixed up with speculation about political intrigue in North Korea. Kim Jong-il, the North’s dictator, is expected to make a rare trip to China as he courts international diplomats for another round of talks over his nuclear weapons.
But Kim is reputed to be in poor health. He has suffered a stroke, and the latest reports suggest he has kidney problems. There are also doubts over his succession.
Refugees from North Korea have confirmed in recent weeks that a propaganda campaign has begun to enshrine Jong-un, his youngest son, as heir to the personality cult of the Kims.
As the country faces mass hunger, there are signs of strain in the regime. Kim is said to have executed his top financial planner after a bungled currency reform set off public resentment.
The Americans and their allies in South Korea and Japan have been on the alert for a military provocation, a standard method Kim uses to attract the attention of Washington when times are tough at home. However, on the evidence so far, the sinking of the Cheonan may not be it.
