U.S. repeats Cheonan was sunk by N. Korea`s torpedo: State Dept.

By Hwang Doo-hyong
WASHINGTON, July 28 (Yonhap) -- The United States Wednesday reiterated that a
North Korean torpedo attack is responsibile for the sinking of a South Korean
warship in the Yellow Sea in March, dismissing reports that Russia has concluded
that a sea mine sank the ship.
"We participated with South Korea and other countries in the investigation of the
sinking of the Cheonan," State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said. "We have
reached our own conclusion and we have not changed our view. Russia sent its own
investigators to South Korea. Those Russian investigators can provide their own
report."
Russia has not yet released an official report on its investigation, but reports
say it concludes differently from the international investigation by South Korea,
the U.S., Australia, Britain and Sweden, which blamed a torpedo fired by a North
Korean mini-submarine.
Russia sent a team to Seoul last month to verify that result.
At the U.N. Security Council, China and Russia joined forces to dilute a
statement that condemned the attack which led to the Cheonan's sinking, but
failed to directly blame North Korea.
Seoul and Washington conducted a four-day joint military exercise in the East Sea
from Sunday in a show of force against any further provocations from the North,
and Washington is poised to announce additional financial sanctions on the North
in the coming weeks.
North Korea is already under U.N. sanctions imposed early last year for its
nuclear and missile tests.
Crowley said that Robert Einhorn, State Department special adviser for
nonproliferation and arms reduction, will travel to Seoul and Tokyo next week to
discuss the sanctions.
"He will be traveling next week," Crowley said. "His stops will include both
Tokyo and South Korea. I think we'll have more to say about his entire itinerary
when it's finally set."
Einhorn is also expected to visit Singapore and Malaysia, informed sources said,
adding that most North Korean financial transactions are done through banks in
China and some southeast Asian countries.
Washington has said it will blacklist more North Korean entities and individuals
to cut off money flowing to its leaders through the trafficking of weapons of
mass destruction and counterfeit and luxury goods in violation of U.N.
resolutions.
Crowley said that focus will be put on "transactions that get at specific areas
of concern to us related to proliferation activities and related to the
leadership that promotes the policies that are of greatest concern to us" rather
than "legitimate commercial transactions that do occur between countries and
North Korea."
The spokesman was responding to the report that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il
has begun to transfer some of his slush funds estimated at US$ 4 billion at
European banks to the accounts held by Kim Jong-un, his youngest son and heir
apparent.
Washington reportedly has found more than 100 North Korean accounts in foreign
banks involved in illicit activities.
"This is something that we watch carefully," Crowley said Monday of the reports.
"We're looking to identify front companies which help North Korea evade existing
sanctions."
hdh@yna.co.kr
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