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An international team of investigators determined that a North Korean torpedo split the South Korean ship in half.
The U.S. military, which has had bases in South Korea since the Korean War, announced it would conduct naval exercises together with South Korea's military as a show of force.
North Korea has denied any involvement in the ship's sinking and has promised to meet any actions against it with an "all-out war."
In the meantime, the United Nations is considering "measures" to address the conflict, which could include additional economic sanctions on North Korea.
"The evidence is quite compelling," the South Korean-born U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said at a news conference. "There is no controversy. Therefore it is the responsibility of the international community to address this issue properly."
Conflict affecting U.S.-China talks
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Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is currently conducting high-level talks with the Chinese government but had to switch gears to address the Korean conflict. |
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The conflict is a hot topic at high-level talks between China and the U.S. in Beijing this week. China shares an 800-mile long border with North Korea, and has a strong trade relationship with its fellow Communist neighbor.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had hoped to discuss a range of economic and security topics, including China's trade policy, the Chinese currency and possible sanctions against Iran.
But the tensions in the Korean peninsula have overshadowed U.S.-Chinese meetings thus far.
"This is a highly precarious situation that the North Koreans have caused in the region," Clinton told the Washington Post from China. "And it is one that every country that neighbors or is in proximity to North Korea understands must be contained."
China has not yet commented on the Korean conflict.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il made a secretive visit to Beijing earlier this month, and many analysts believe China would like to keep the North Korean leader in power to avoid instability that could send hundreds of thousands of North Korean refugees streaming into China along the long border.
As one of five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council with the power to veto resolutions, China is key in determining any U.N. actions against North Korea. The other permanent Security Council members with veto power are the U.S., France, Britain and Russia. There are ten other countries on the Security Council who are elected to two-year terms and cannot veto resolutions.
Korean peninsula remains in a state of war
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After the Korean War, North and South Korea were divided along a "demarcation line" that roughly follows the 38th parallel. |
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Tensions between the two Koreas have been high since the Korean War, which lasted from 1950 to 1953 and grew into an international conflict between communism in the North and capitalism in the South. The Korean peninsula technically remains in a state of war because the conflict ended with a truce, not a peace treaty.
The truce, called the Korean War Armistice Agreement, drew a line known as the "demarcation line" along the 38th parallel (line of latitude), creating North Korea to the north and South Korea to the south.
South Korea maintains that North Korea's action against its ship violates the terms of the Korean War Armistice Agreement.
While the land border between North and South Korea is clearly drawn, the border in the sea, or the maritime border, is harder to define and often disputed. South Korea maintains that a line originally drawn by the United Nations, known as the Northern Limiting Line (NLL), is the proper border between it and North Korea in the Yellow Sea.
But, North Korea believes that line was drawn too far north, and there have been repeated skirmishes along the NLL.
While most of those skirmishes have been relatively minor, the March 26 incident is the most serious border dispute between the Koreas in decades.
Show of aggression may signal coming change in North Korean government
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Kim Jong-Il's father, the late Kim Il-Sung, is still revered by the North Korean people as their "Great Leader." |
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The Kim family has been in charge of North Korea since the 1950s. Kim Jong-Il, who inherited Communist North Korea's highest leadership position from his father, Kim Il-Sung, announced last year he is preparing his youngest son Kim Jong Un to take over as his successor.
Despite the North Koreans' dedication to their "dear leader" Kim Jong-Il, many suffer from malnutrition and live in isolation from the rest of the world. Some analysts believe Kim Jong-Il ordered the attack to show that the family is still firmly in control.
South Korea is hoping to take advantage of any power transition. Using loudspeakers and billboards along the demarcation line, radio broadcasts and balloons that drop leaflets, the South is trying to expose North Koreans to Western news and music with the hope that they will rise up against their government.
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I think we've been witnessing violence for years, whether in reality through the media or through video games, and I don't think that's a first-hand effect.
