Clinton: World must act on Korean ship sinking

May 27, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Associated Press

SEOUL, South Korea

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Wednesday the world must respond to the “unacceptable provocation” represented by the sinking of a South Korean warship blamed on Pyongyang, as the regime unleashed more blistering rhetoric against Seoul and Washington.

Tension on the divided Korean peninsula has risen dramatically since international investigators said last week that a torpedo fired by a North Korean submarine tore apart and sank the South Korean warship Cheonan on March 26, killing 46 sailors.

Relations are at their lowest point in a decade, when South Korea began reaching out to the North with unconditional aid as part of reconciliation efforts. South Korean President Lee Myung-bak has taken a harder line against Pyongyang since taking office in 2008 amid delays in the North’s promised denuclearization and has suspended aid.

South Korea, backed by the U.S., Japan and other allies, began implementing a package of punitive measures against the North on Tuesday — ranging from slashing trade, resuming propaganda warfare and barring the North’s cargo ships. Those were seen as among the strongest it could implement short of military action.

“This was an unacceptable provocation by North Korea, and the international community has a responsibility and a duty to respond,” Clinton told reporters in Seoul, the final leg of a three-nation Asian tour.

South Korea’s measures “are absolutely appropriate, and they have the full support of the United States.”

Later Wednesday, North Korea again called the investigation results a “fabrication” and accused President Barack Obama’s administration of being behind a plot to pinpoint the North as the culprit to bolster its military presence in the region.

North Korea, which has vowed to retaliate against any punishment for the ship sinking, has declared it is cutting relations with South Korea, starting “all-out counterattacks” against the South’s psychological warfare operations and barring South Korean ships and airliners from passing through its territory.