Asia-Pacific

DPRK to use force if wronged by UN: envoy

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-06-16 09:23

UNITED NATIONS - The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) will respond with military measures if the UN Security Council releases any document against it over the Cheonan case, its UN ambassador said on Tuesday.

"If the Security Council releases any documents against us, condemning or questioning us ... follow-up measures will be carried out by our military forces," Sin Son Ho, the DPRK's permanent representative to the United Nations, told a press conference here.

Asked if his comment meant to threaten military action, Sin simply replied: "I gave you an answer. You can prejudge what is the meaning."

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The Republic of Korea (ROK) has officially asked the UN Security Council to consider and take "appropriate" action over the sinking of its 1,200-ton Navy frigate "Cheonan" on March 26, which killed 46 sailors.

Seoul said after completing investigations that the warship was torpedoed by the DPRK. But Pyongyang denied its involvement in the incident.

At Tuesday's press conference, Sin rejected the investigation result released by the ROK over the Cheonan warship sinking as "a complete fabrication from A to Z."

The result has "raised thousands of accusations domestically and externally since the very moment of its release," he said. "As days go by, various information and objective realities have been found enough to prove that this case is fabricated in pursuit of political purposes of the South Korean authorities."

Citing an example, Sin said that the ROK had presented the rear part of a 1.5-meter-long torpedo as "material evidence" for the sinking by a DPRK torpedo.

But since the sinking of the warship, a number of U.S. and ROK ships equipped with the state-of-the-art detective means conducted intensive search for any material evidence for over 50 days in the sinking site with no success, he said.

Then, "a fishing boat appeared all of a sudden, and claimed that it had collected a remnant of torpedo of 1.5 meters long by fishing net just five days before the release of the ' investigation result,'" Sin said. "This is indeed as funny story as some kind of fiction in the Aesop's Fables."

He also described as "ridiculous" the marking in Korean script, which reads No. 1 in English, found inside the end of the propulsion part, because the north and south of Korea are using the same language.

"If somebody attacks the other in a secret way, he or she will not leave any trace. This is the common understanding and sense of knowledge," he said.

Besides, "it is the view of specialists that the writing by market could not remain because of high heat from the explosion of torpedo," he said.

Sin said that the conclusive evidence presented by the ROK is nothing more than "conclusive doubts" and the investigation result of the Joint Investigation Group is "a mosaic scenario, not scientific; biased and unilateral, not objective."

"If the Security Council formally debates this case with only the unilateral 'investigation result' of the south but without verification by the DPRK, the victim, it will mean that the Security Council takes the side of one party of dispute excluding the other," he said.

The United States and the Security Council "shall bear the full responsibility for the subsequent consequences" if the Council treats this case "unfairly," and fails to prevent any conflict on the Korean Peninsula, he warned.

"Our people and army will smash out aggressors with merciless counteraction if they dare to provoke us despite our repeated demand and warnings, and build the most thriving reunified nation on the Korean Peninsula," he claimed.

On Monday afternoon, the Security Council held separate private meetings with delegations of the two countries to hear their briefings over the Cheonan case. Then the 15 members of the Council huddled behind closed doors to discuss the matter among themselves.

In remarks to the press following the meetings, Mexico's UN Ambassador Claude Heller, the Council president for this month, said the Council members were "gravely concerned" with the impact of the incident on peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula, and urged the sides "to refrain from any act that could escalate tensions in the region."

The Council has not reached any conclusion yet and will " continue its consultations on this incident," Heller said.