The PCC-772 ship that sank over a month ago has finnally been confirmed that a torpedo was likely the cuase.
I have been providing METOC support for the salvage operations over the past month and I can tell you a lot of time and energy was put in to find the exact cuase of this. Overall it's scary from my point of view.
Below is an article from the Washington Post.
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WHAT is to be done when a rogue state commits an act of war, killing scores of people, but tries to avoid retaliation by denying responsibility? For South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, the answer begins with a very deliberate investigation. It has now been more than a month since the March 26 sinking of a South Korean corvette after an explosion; a week of mourning is now underway for the 40 sailors killed and the six still missing. From the beginning, an attack by North Korea was suspected. But only this week did South Korea's defense minister say publicly that a torpedo was the likely cause of the explosion -- and he didn't say where the torpedo came from.
Even that cautious statement was quickly played down by the Obama administration, which is participating in an international investigation of the incident. "I think it was a conditional statement," said State Department spokesman Philip Crowley. "I don't know that the investigation has arrived at that final judgment."
Investigators have yet to find hard evidence, such as scraps of a torpedo. But the real problem of concluding that North Korea did what it almost certainly did is that neither Mr. Lee nor the Obama administration has good ideas for how to respond. Military retaliation would risk a devastating war on the Korean Peninsula. Asking the U.N. Security Council for more sanctions against the regime of Kim Jong Il would require the consent of China, which will not easily be persuaded. And unilateral sanctions by South Korea, such as closing an industrial area where Southern firms employ thousands of Northern workers, could make the North still more dependent on China, which already controls 70 percent of its trade.
Mr. Lee has handled the situation as well as he probably could. He has avoided provocative public statements while trying to build a national consensus that excludes military action, and an international agreement that North Korea must suffer some consequences. Tighter sanctions might serve a purpose if they force Mr. Kim to resume negotiations about giving up his nuclear arsenal; they might also further weaken a regime that has been looking particularly shaky to some outside experts.
Still, North Korea is likely to survive so long as China continues to prop it up. Since Beijing appears to prefer the status quo on the Korean Peninsula, it is unlikely to withdraw its support anytime soon. That means, in turn, that Mr. Kim has a good chance at getting away with murder -- which is probably what he calculated all along.
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This Article is from the NEW YORK TIMES
SEOUL, South Korea — The South Korean military vowed revenge, but fell short of blaming North Korea by name, as the country gave an emotional farewell on Thursday to the sailors killed when their ship sank last month near a disputed sea border with the North.
If the ship is found to have been torpedoed by North Korea, as many South Koreans suspect, it will amount to one of the most serious provocations from the North in recent decades. Seoul has repeatedly vowed “stern countermeasures” but has said it will not not publicly discuss its options until an investigation is over.
Military retaliation was unlikely, analysts say.
“We’ll never forgive whoever inflicted this great pain on us,” said the Navy chief of staff, Kim Sung-chan, at a mass funeral for the victims on Thursday. “We will track them down to the end and we will, by all means, make them pay for this.”
Sirens wailed, flags flew at half-staff, and navy ships sounded whistles as South Korea honored the 40 sailors known to have died and six others who are missing and presumed dead.
There is widespread suspicion among South Koreans that the ship was hit by a North Korean torpedo.
Bruce Klingner, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, said on Thursday that he noticed “uncharacteristic reticence and nervousness” among South Korean officials although, metaphorically, “they found a body with a bullet hole in the head and North Korea was the only guy in the room with the pistol.”
Mr. Klingner has met South Korean officials in the past week over the ship sinking.
Investigators are studying the salvaged wreck of the ship, which broke in half on March 26. They are also searching the seabed for evidence of what caused the explosion. South Korea’s defense minister has said a heavy torpedo was the most likely cause, although he has not openly blamed the North Korea, which has denied involvement
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Updated: 09:40 PM GMT del 30 Aprile 2010
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