North Korean ambassador to the UN Sin Son Ho has firmly rejected charges that his country was responsible for the sinking of the South Korean warship Cheonan, in a press conference in New York on Tuesday (Wednesday, June 16 in Asia).
Ambassador Sin warned that Pyongyang would respond militarily to any Security Council condemnation over the sinking of the South Korea vessel, which Seoul blamed on North Korea.
Sin cast doubts on the credibility of international Joint Investigation Group, by South Korea branding its findings “a complete fabrication from A to Z”.
He declared that he wished to “further clarify” his country’s position on the sinking of the Cheonan.
He stressed that group’s findings were neither scientific nor objective, as claimed by both the South Korea and the United States.
Sin added that the material evidence they had presented raised many doubts even inside South Korea, and its ally US and around the world.
He said that the attribution of responsibility for the sinking to his country was a farce concocted by the US and the South Korea for political purposes.
“It is the [United States] that mostly benefited from the incident of the sinking of the Cheonan,” he charged.
He claimed that soon after the incident, the US had “hyped” the threat from the North Korea, finally making the Democratic Party of Japan yield in its aim to drive US forces out of Okinawa.
Ambassador also said the sinking had helped the US project a strong image before Congressional midterm elections later this year, and thus to justify its policy of “strategic patience”, designed to degrade the environment for international investment in the North Korea and thereby suffocate its economy.
Sin said his country had instead proposed to dispatch its own investigative group to the site of the incident as the only way to get to the truth.
“Only when all doubts are cleared and all truths are found evidently, can the case of the sinking of the Cheonan be resolved,” he stressed.
He added: “If the South Korean authorities have nothing to hide, there is no reason for them not to accept our inspection group for the verification of their investigation result.”
Sin also urged caution on the part of the Security Council.
The ambassador warned that if it formally debated the issue on the basis of Seoul’s unilateral “investigation result” but without verification by his country, it would mean that the Council was taking the side of one party to the exclusion of the other.
He claimed that his country was the victim and said such action by the Security Council would be contrary to the principles of sovereignty and equality, as enshrined in the UN Charter.
He warned that war could break out anytime on the Korean peninsula due to the “reckless military manouvres of South Korea for retaliation and punishment after the fabrication of the investigation result”.
Sin said: “The Security Council has been besmirched in February 2003 due to the former US Secretary of State Colin Powell’s lies about Iraq. If the Security Council is again deceived by another lie and tackles this case unfairly, thus failing to prevent any conflict on the Korean peninsula, the US and the Security Council shall bear the full responsibility for the subsequent consequences arising there from.”
The people and army of the North Korea would “smash our aggressors” mercilessly if provoked, despite the country’s oft-repeated desire to build a thriving and unified nation on the Korean peninsula, he added.
Sin reaffirmed his country’s insistence on sending it’s own team to carry out investigations, asserting that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (or North Korea) considered that a priority at present.
He said nuclear weapons were a “deterrent” and their use would be considered in respect of the present matter, when asked whether North Korea would also consider using nuclear weapons in reaction to any negative Security Council action.
South Korean envoy on Monday (Tuesday, June 15 in Asia) had urged the Security Council to take action against the North Korea after giving evidence on the incident.
"We identified the torpedo as a North Korean CHT02D on the basis of our recovered pieces of the torpedo," said Yoon Duk-Yong, a physics and material science expert at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology.
Security Council has called both sides "to refrain from any act that could escalate tension in the region" and to preserve peace and stability on the peninsula.
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