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S. Korean President: North Will 'Pay the Price' for Sinking Southern Ship

   VOA News 23 May 2010
   South  Koreans  watch  a  live  broadcast of President Lee Myung-bak's
   press  conference  at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea,
   24 May 2010

Photo: AP

   South  Koreans  watch  a  live  broadcast of President Lee Myung-bak's
   press  conference  at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea,
   24 May 2010

   South  Korea's  President  Lee Myung-bak says North Korea will pay the
   price for sinking a South Korean naval ship in March.
   Mr.  Lee  told  a  nationwide  television  audience  Monday  that  his
   government  will  appeal  to  the  United Nations Security Council for
   sanctions  against  the  North.  He also said North Korean commercial
   ships  will no longer be permitted to sail in South Korean waters, and
   that all trade and exchanges with the North will be frozen, except for
   a joint industrial park project.
   The  South  Korean  leader  said  his country will invoke its right to
   defend itself if Pyongyang wages aggression again.  But he said Seoul
   is not looking for a military confrontation.
   Seoul has accused Pyongyang of firing a torpedo at the warship Cheonan
   in  March,  killing 46 sailors. North Korea has accused South Korea of
   faking  the  incident,  and has threatened to go to war if South Korea
   retaliates.
   Most  of  the international community has condemned the sinking.  But
   it  is  not  clear  what  if  anything the Security Council will do in
   response.
   U.S. officials have refrained from calling the attack either an act of
   war  or  state-sponsored  terrorism.   But Secretary of State Hillary
   Clinton  in  Tokyo  Friday denounced North Korea for sinking the South
   Korean   ship,   and   she   warned  that  "provocative  actions  have
   consequences."
   The  area  where  the South Korean ship sank is near a maritime border
   designated  by  the  U.N.  Command  at  the signing of the 1953 Korean
   armistice.   Pyongyang  has never accepted the border as valid.  The
   two Koreas have fought three naval clashes in the area since 1999.

   Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.

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