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N. Korea: Ship Sinking Helped U.S.

15 June 2010 20:45 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. North Korea’s U.N. ambassador said the United States and South Korea benefited politically from the sinking in March of the South’s warship Cheonan, but he stopped short of blaming either country for deliberately attacking the ship, APA reports quoting The Wall Street Journal.
Ambassador Sin Son Ho told a rare news conference that the U.S. convinced Japan to keep a controversial U.S. base in Okinawa after the incident and that the release of South Korea’s own investigation into the attack was timed for the beginning of South Korean elections.
Mr. Sin said the U.S. and South Korea were conducting war games in a disputed area on March 26 and that it would have been impossible for a North Korean submarine to enter the region given the detection abilities of both nations.
The North Korean ambassador would not say whether the sinking was intentional or the result of an accident. "I am not here to blame anyone but to clarify what happened," Mr. Sin said.
South Korea said in a report released on May 20 that the incident, which killed 46 South Korean sailors, was a deliberate attack by Pyongyang.
Both North and South Korea on Monday briefed the Security Council in consecutive closed-door meetings.
Mr. Sin insisted that North Korea be allowed to conduct its own investigation of the site, a request so far refused by the South.
U.S. official could not be immediately reached for comment.
Mr. Sin said that blaming North Korea caused the Japanese government to reverse a decision to ask the U.S. base on Okinawa to leave. The Japanese government collapsed after allowing the U.S. to stay.
"The U.S. most benefited from the sinking," Mr. Sin said. Washington also wanted to delay a planned turn over of operational military command to the South in 2012.
"The U.S. killed two birds with one stone." He said the incident also had the effect of driving foreign investment away from the North. "The U.S. wants to degrade our economy," he said.