Text Fwd: [Peace Network] Statement: We urge presenting additional information and the inter-Korean Dialogue

Peace Network: Statement: We urge presenting additional information and the inter-Korean Dialogue
June 7, 2010

The Joint Civilian-Military Investigation Group (JIG) reported the result of the investigation regarding the sinking of South Korean naval ship Cheonan. JIG announced that North Korean torpedo had attacked the South Korean ship Cheonan and it had attacked by North Korean midget submarine torpedo. The 'smoking gun' provided by the investigation group was that the torpedo propeller and the propulsion motor collected from the site of the sinking matched the specification of blueprint of North Korean torpedo, which is used for foreign countries for exports. Also, one of the propellers contained hand-written marking '1 beon' meaning 'No.1' and the font of this marking were claimed to be similar to that on North Korean torpedo found in the past.

Although it is outstanding that the announcement contains more specific details than before, we cannot help but pointing out that the result leaves many mysterious queries. Moreover, it is essential to take a step forward to regard North Korea's stance of sending its own team of inspectors as a suggestion of inter-Korean dialogue and it has to be underlined that dialogue is foremost rather than taking hard-line actions towards North Korea.

First, the debris from the torpedo which was proved by JIG to be the critical evidence has appeared to be extremely corroded and the possibility that the torpedo could have been swept away from North Korea long before the Cheonan incident cannot be ignored. It is doubtful that JIG has not disclosed the instruction materials of North Korean torpedo and it is far-fetched to say that the hand-written marking of 'No.1' on the torpedo is the 'critical evidence'. In addition, the JIG claimed that the gas turbine area has been directly attacked. Though this area is the crucial part to clarify the cause of the incident, it has not been fully investigated since the salvage operation was done right before the day of announcement. Most of all, some of the specific details have not been confirmed yet, such as North Korean submarine intrusion and standby status, the route of Cheonan navy vessel , the launching process of torpedo, and an escaping process.

Second, we urge South Korean government to reveal all collected evidences as they are. During the investigation, the government did not show important evidence on account of military secrecy and it frequently changed statements along with inappropriate media manipulation. These brought about the public distrust. However, it has been realized that deep secrecy will make investigation untrustworthy. Lee Jung Hee, a member of Democratic Labor Party, contended that although the Ministry of National Defense made it clear that there were no images recorded by a thermal observation device(TOD), which captured the point when the ship split into two, the top officers in Joint Chief of Staff(JCS) saw the images of the incident. It is required to publicly release not only the TOD images but also other related evidence including KNTDS documents, the vessel route and the correspondence records, records of US-South Korea Joint Military exercise, statements from the survivors and introductory materials of North Korean torpedo for exports.

Finally, South Korean government must not take firm action and it has a responsibility to mitigate the overall tension in Korean peninsula through dialogue with North Korea. It is expected to have a vast effect on the situation in Korean peninsula and the Northeast Asia since North Korea declared that the South Korean investigation was 'a sheer fabrication' and punitive sanctions over the incident would be met with tough measures including all-out war. In this difficult situation, we firmly suggest that the Lee administration accept North Korea's request of dispatching inspectors to the South as a chance to have inter-dialogue. If the South Korean government has the so-called 'smoking gun', there is no reason to refuse dialogues with North Korea. It is such a miserable situation that the sinking of Cheonan ship led the inter-Korean relations to the overall confrontation. The government authority must put a large effort on preventing from the deteriorated crisis through dialogues instead of solely focusing on taking stern countermeasures. - Peace Network