[Image: http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2010/04/30/world/30koreaspan-cnd/30koreaspan-cnd-articleLarge.jpg]
South Korea Vows to Avenge Sailors’ Deaths
By CHOE SANG-HUN
SEOUL, South Korea — The South Korean military vowed revenge, but fell short of blaming North Korea by name, as the country gave an emotional farewell on Thursday to the sailors killed when their ship sank last month near a disputed sea border with the North.
If the ship is found to have been torpedoed by North Korea, as many South Koreans suspect, it will amount to one of the most serious provocations from the North in recent decades. Seoul has repeatedly vowed “stern countermeasures†but has said it will not not publicly discuss its options until an investigation is over.
Military retaliation was unlikely, analysts say.
“We’ll never forgive whoever inflicted this great pain on us,†said the Navy chief of staff, Kim Sung-chan, at a mass funeral for the victims on Thursday. “We will track them down to the end and we will, by all means, make them pay for this.â€
Sirens wailed, flags flew at half-staff, and navy ships sounded whistles as South Korea honored the 40 sailors known to have died and six others who are missing and presumed dead.
There is widespread suspicion among South Koreans that the ship was hit by a North Korean torpedo.
Bruce Klingner, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, said on Thursday that he noticed “uncharacteristic reticence and nervousness†among South Korean officials although, metaphorically, “they found a body with a bullet hole in the head and North Korea was the only guy in the room with the pistol.â€
Mr. Klingner has met South Korean officials in the past week over the ship sinking.
Investigators are studying the salvaged wreck of the ship, which broke in half on March 26. They are also searching the seabed for evidence of what caused the explosion. South Korea’s defense minister has said a heavy torpedo was the most likely cause, although he has not openly blamed the North Korea, which has denied involvement.
More than 2,000 guests, including President Lee Myung-bak and foreign ambassadors, attended the funeral. Mothers of the sailors wailed as they clasped their sons’ photos and the urns containing their ashes.
The families of the six missing sailors burned their naval uniforms and personal belongings and buried those ashes on Thursday. The name of each sailor was read out while Mr. Lee placed a military medal on an altar before the sailor’s photograph.
South Korea Vows to Avenge Sailors? Deaths - NYTimes.com
Korea culture lesson: The cat guesses that burning... forgot the word is a common form of funeral?
Cremation? there we go...
The cat wonders how it will be until there will be actual military action.
This is after a Samsung super-freighter that sank