Today marks the fifth anniversary of the sinking of the Cheonan, in which 46 of the personnel on the South Korean navy ship lost their
lives, and not unlike previous years, North Korea remained resolute in its claims that the incident was the result of a clash with a U.S. submarine rather than an attack by the North.
“The fact that the sinking of Cheonan was a huge crime committed by the U.S. will be brought to light,” Chosun Central News Agency [KCNA] reported on March 26th. “World opinion and scientists’ assertions both say that the Cheonan split, not because it was torpedoed, but because it was
intentionally rammed by a U.S. submarine.”
The report followed by immediately contradicting itself, claiming that just before the Cheonan incident, amid the ROK-U.S. joint military drills, the U.S. submarine sank in the Yellow Sea and that the Cheonan went down trying to rescue the former.
“The United States has used the foundering
of the Cheonan to tighten its grip on South Korea and expand its strategy to dominate the world,” the report went on, enumerating the increased sanctions imposed on North Korea and delayed transfer of wartime operation control to Seoul as evidence buttressing this claim.
It concluded by condeming South Korea’s betrayal, stating, “South Korea committed a grave crime against us by going along with U.S. theories, which are entirely absurd and ungrounded, that this was a provocation by the North.”
