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SEOUL — An investigator said Friday that an external explosion likely sank a South Korean patrol ship last month, heightening fears that the blast that ripped the 1,200-ton Cheonan in half was deliberately caused by North Korea.
The March 26 explosion near the maritime border with North Korea killed at least 38 crewmembers, most of them in their 20s and serving their conscripted military service. Eight crewmembers remain missing. Fifty-eight were rescued after the explosion.
A spokesman for South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense said the investigation team needed more time to determine if a mine or torpedo caused the explosion — two possibilities that have been suggested by South Korean Defense Minister Kim Tae-young. The spokesman said it was impossible to know how long the investigation would last.
The team said it was unlikely that the blast was caused by an internal explosion, hitting a reef or “fatigue fracture” caused by structural weakness.
Investigators had their first look at the ship above water on Thursday after it was pulled up by crane. An initial visual check of the stern showed no damage inside the ammunition stockpile room, fuel tank or diesel engine room, the spokesman said. There was also no trace of fire in the gas turbine room, and all electric cables were found in good condition, he said.
Eight American analysts — four servicemembers and four civilians — are part of the investigation team.
As of Friday afternoon, the bodies of 36 crewmembers had been found inside the ship’s water-filled stern after it was pulled from the Yellow Sea. Two bodies were previously found inside the ship while it was underwater.
The Defense Ministry spokesman said the bodies of the missing crewmembers were likely inside the ship’s bow, which could be pulled up next week. The bow is located about four miles from where the stern settled, and U.S. dive teams have been searching the ocean floor between them looking for debris from the explosion.
The defense minister said Friday during a press conference that the government believes the sinking is “a grave national security issue.”
“This navy ship may have been sunk by a power intending to threaten our national security,” the ministry spokesman said.
When asked if that power was North Korea, he declined to elaborate.
U.S. Forces Korea spokesman David Oten had no comment.
Officials had hoped in the days after the sinking that crewmembers had been able to seal their cabins and survive on an air supply expected to last 69 hours.
But the Defense Ministry spokesman said it appeared the sailors had all drowned, though most of the victims’ families were opposed to conducting autopsies that would conclusively determine when and how the sailors died.
Many South Koreans hold the Confucian belief that damaging a body through an autopsy or other means inflicts a second death upon the deceased.
Family members identified the sailors’ bodies on Thursday and Friday. Even after three weeks in the sea, the bodies were easily identifiable because they had been preserved by the cold temperatures and salt water, the spokesman said.
Funeral plans will not be set until the bow is lifted from the water.
Even if the missing eight sailors, whose bodies may have been destroyed in the blast, are not found, they will receive funerals, the spokesman said.
The stern will be taken to a naval base in Pyeongtaek for further investigation.
http://www.stripes.com/news/investigators-external-explosion-likely-sunk-south-korean-ship-1.100909
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