SEOUL — South Korea staged war games near the tense border with North Korea on Monday as Seoul worked to persuade doubters at home and abroad that Pyongyang was responsible for sinking one of its warships.
"There are some people in our society who spread groundless allegations and raise doubts about the outcome of a probe into the Cheonan. I feel sad and regretful," said Foreign Minister Yu Myung-Hwan.
A multinational investigation team said May 20 it found overwhelming evidence that a North Korean submarine fired a torpedo which tore the Cheonan corvette in two on March 26, with the loss of 46 lives.
South Korea announced a series of reprisals including cutting off trade with its communist neighbour. It plans, with US and Japanese support, to ask the UN Security Council to sanction -- or at least to censure -- the North.
The hardline state furiously denies involvement and has responded to the reprisals with threats of war, sending regional tensions sharply higher.
Thousands of troops staged the military exercise -- which was scheduled before the current tensions -- to thwart a simulated attack by North Korea along a river just south of the border.
The drill included about 50 tanks and armoured vehicles, which crossed a floating bridge backed by dozens of attack helicopters and artillery, military officials said.
Numerous countries have condemned the North for the sinking in the Yellow Sea, one of the worst military attacks on the South since the 1950-53 war.
But for its appeal to the Security Council to succeed, the South needs the backing of veto-wielding members China and Russia.
China's Premier Wen Jiabao resisted pressure at a three-way weekend summit from the Japanese and South Korean leaders to publicly support the UN move or to condemn Beijing's ally.
Wen was in Tokyo Monday, where Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama again urged him to back efforts to reprimand the North.
China says it will study the investigation report, while Russia sent a team of naval experts Monday to South Korea to do the same. The foreign ministry in Moscow has said it needs "100 percent proof" of North Korea's role.
Some South Koreans are also sceptical. A poll in Hankook Ilbo newspaper last week found that 24 percent of respondents do not trust the investigation findings.
Yu, addressing foreign ministry officials, said some left-leaning groups were "recklessly" echoing the North's claims over the sinking. He said he would step up efforts to refer the incident to the United Nations.
Second Vice Foreign Minister Chun Yung-Woo, in charge of UN affairs, will leave for the United States Monday for discussions with US officials.
Young Internet users have raised doubts about the probe, while left-leaning opposition parties and groups accuse the government of using the case to win support from conservative voters in local elections this Wednesday.
The defence ministry said Monday it would select 20 Twitter users, 10 defence bloggers and 30 college reporters to visit the naval base where the wreckage of the Cheonan is housed.
Twitter users will be briefed on the probe and allowed to take photographs of the wreckage to dispel doubts among young people, it said.
The North says Seoul's conservative government faked evidence to incite tensions and to boost its support before the elections.
But the top US military officer said Sunday he was concerned about a possible North Korean "follow-on" to the torpedo attack.
Admiral Michael Mullen told "Fox News Sunday" he was concerned about North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's intentions because "he just doesn't seem to do single things."
"So I'm concerned that, you know, there could be follow-on activities."
A senior Seoul government official estimated at a background briefing that the South's reprisals would cost the cash-strapped North between 260-300 million dollars a year.
Relations would improve "only if North Korea make an apology, admits its wrongdoing and punishes those responsible," he said.
"Our goal is not to impose sanctions but to prevent a recurrence of such provocations."
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