Military Commentator on Truth behind "Story of Attack by North" (2)

Military Commentator on Truth behind "Story of Attack by North" (2)

Pyongyang, May 29 (KCNA) -- A military commentator Tuesday released an article in connection with the south Korean regime's allegation about the north's "torpedo attack" on south Korean warship "Cheonan". Following is the second part of the article: 2. Are the investigation results scientific and objective? The south Korean regime said that mobilized in the probe into the incident were a "civilian-military joint investigation team" involving 25 experts from 10 professional organs, 22 military experts and 3 members from the "National Assembly", and an "international joint investigation team" made up of 24 experts from the United States, Britain and other countries, so that the investigation results were worked out in a scientific, objective and exact way. What is the point here is who was in charge of the investigation. It is none other than the south Korean puppet military that are to blame for the incident. But the very one responsible for the incident took charge of the investigation, reminding one of a criminal investigating into his own crime. With the investigation undertaken by those who should have been brought to justice, its results were a matter of course. A person who took part in the investigation said, "The results of the investigation are not reliable as it was superintended by the military responsible for the incident". The "international joint investigation team", advertised by the south Korean regime, was made up of those from such allies of south Korea as the United States, Britain and Australia from whom it was hard to expect objectivity in investigation. In some sense, it seems that they gathered to serve as supporters in the drama played by the south Korean regime and seek an excuse for escalating international pressure on the DPRK. No sooner had the investigation results been released than the afore-said countries kicked off a new wave of the anti-DPRK campaign. As for the "civilian-military joint investigation team", there is enough ground for controversy as to how significant the role played by some civilians in the investigation was. The carefully selected civilians were not allowed to use their mobile phones but compelled to make a written pledge to observe secrecy and stay in warship "Tokdo" until the end of the investigation. One of them was excluded from the investigation team and prosecuted for the reason that he failed to agree with the "Defence Ministry" in its allegation about the "torpedo attack by the north". It stands to reason that many experts think the impartiality and objectivity of the investigation are out of the question since it was undertaken by the military responsible for the incident. It is the view of the world public that nobody knows better than the south Korean military about the cause of the incident. Before the occurrence of the incident, the vessel in question navigated towards the 25 meters deep water area, out of its regular route, at the risk of stranding. After the incident occurred, its survivals were all confined to a military hospital for "mental stress" with gag placed on their mouth. They were not allowed to use mobile phone and contact the outside. The vessel's log, communication record and photos have not been made public for the reason of "military secret". The military made five different announcements about the spot of the incident and the captain of the vessel first denied the likelihood of others' provocation and then reversed his original statement. The detected powder was first announced to be RDX but later it was changed into TNT allegedly used in such countries as Russia, China and north Korea. And the military stated that there is no ground that the incident was caused by the north's attack but later insisted on the story about the "north's torpedo attack". Materials used in the investigation are mainly related to the military. The survivals said in their "official testimony" that they heard explosion sound one or two times and a private said his face was splashed with water drops when he fell down by a shock. A guard alleged he saw a nearly 100-metre-high column of water for two or three seconds at night from Paekryong Island. All their remarks were needed to prove an underwater explosion. And the autopsy of the dead was done with no access to civilians. The activities of the investigation team were reported every day only to the "minister of Defence" and the "chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff". With Lee Myung Bak, Chong Un Chan, Won Se Hun and other evaders of the military service taking top positions in south Korea such as "president", "prime minister" and "director of the National Intelligence Service", the military have been in high feather, far from feeling a sense of sin. Many significant and scientific materials concerning the cause of the incident were raised during the investigation. A sea rescue expert with a 30-odd-year-long career reportedly proved that the vessel was sunken through its carelessness. When the stern of the vessel was pulled up, he, in view of large scratches on it and the dead in underwear, judged that it ran on a rock. According to his opinion, the survivals have been forced to refrain from clarifying the truth. The fact that there are rocks in the water area has been confirmed by the chief of the south Korea maritime police through a submarine map and by fishermen. But they were charged with their telling the truth by the "Defence Security Command", the police and "government officials". The maritime police said "Rescue us from stranding" is the first message they received from the navy after the incident happened. Some people, including a former army chief of staff, have guessed that if the vessel was sunken by an outside shock, it might be hit through mistake by a U.S. warship or fighter plane mobilized in military maneuvers in the water area at that time and that a recruit might set off an explosive to kill himself in protest against harsh treatment including beating. Upset by the development, the south Korean regime killed all the speculations and opinions against its scenario, resorting to every conceivable means including threat and blackmail. Therefore, the investigation took place in such a way as substantiating the regime's far-fetched allegation, not in a scientific, neutral and objective way backed by real evidence. It is illustrated by the materials presented by the south Korean regime that the investigation was intentionally directed towards the sinking of the vessel by the north's torpedo attack. When the incident happened, the regime referred to the likeliness that it was caused by a mine as the United States laid 500-600 mines in the sea to protect a radar set on Paekryong Island in the 1960s and that the vessel was so old that it was sunken by itself. According to families of the missing crewmen, the old vessel underwent repairs several times. It ruled out the possibility of the incident caused by a torpedo, noting that the engine sound of a launched torpedo cannot evade radar and that a submarine cannot easily move while a torpedo can easily be detected, as the water area is so shallow. The regime also said there was no special move of the north, a meaning that there was no ground of the north's involvement in the incident. In actuality, it did not place into operation Watch Condition, an anti-north monitoring system which had been at work whenever the situation became tense. With the lapse of time, the "story about the north's involvement in the incident" has come out from the regime gradually but persistently. The story was hyped up to be the "north's direct involvement" and then the "north's torpedo attack". In the meantime, evidence pieces which may refute the north's involvement in the incident went into oblivion one after another or were strictly excluded from the objects of investigation. Typical of them is a gas turbine, a main piece of evidence which can help clarify the cause of the incident. The turbine must have gone down vertically when the vessel was broken and sunken. So it might take no much time and effort to detect and pull up it. But the regime, well aware that the turbine was submerged under the spot, intentionally gave up the effort for searching it, alleging that it was carried away by an explosion, because the condition of the turbine would serve as a decisive clue in clarifying the cause of the incident. When the turbine was discovered by a fisherman, it was compelled to pull it up a day before the announcement of the investigation results. All the facts indicate that the investigation was carried out in a far-fetched and one-sided way, not in a scientific way. 3. "Story about the north's torpedo attack" is what the south Korean regime invented to seek a way out of its crisis through fiction of threat from the north. Plot-hatching is an attribute and mode of existence for confrontation-maniacs. Frankly speaking, if the officers of vessel did not have life boats and vests all to themselves and if they did something to rescue the others with the stern, not the main part, of the vessel burst, the 46 young privates would have never lost their lives. An inhabitant on Paekryong Island said, "I have never seen a patrol craft approaching that close". And a military expert said the vessel's approach close to the "northern limit line" is a provocation of the "Defence Ministry" against the north, expressing a suspicion that it was put under water premeditatedly for a certain purpose. Just after the vessel was submerged, another patrol boat recklessly fired some 130 shells towards the north. It became clear later that the firing was planned in advance by the south Korean authorities and military. When the south Korean people were disturbed in mind over the incident, the captain of the vessel appeared, in a gala dress unsuitable for the tragedy, at a briefing for the families of those reported missing, striking the participants speechless. His behavior added to the suspicion that the incident was a cold-blooded farce architected by the "pragmatic government" of south Korea in a bid to prop up itself. The south Korean progressives, opposition parties, civic and social organizations and even those concerned in the "civilian-military joint investigation team" have ridiculed the investigation results as "crude and brazen-faced fraud motivated by an political intention", "farce aimed to win the forthcoming election by making much ado about threat from the north" and the "last of a serial fiction". A poll taken by a south Korean conservative press organ showed that a half of the pollees -- those above the level of university graduate and those of twenties -- disavowed the investigation results. After cooking up such mean and clumsy charade, the south Korean regime is working with bloodshot eyes to peddle the fiction of threat from the north, defying scientific evidence and objective procedures. This desperate effort of the regime is aimed to save itself from the present crisis. The south Korean political situation has run into an unprecedented crisis. As the regime, on the basis of the alliance with the United States, has pursued pro-U.S. policies since it came to power, south Korea has further reduced to a colony of the United States, harassed by the regime's anti-popular policies and fascist dictatorship, and inter-Korean relations have reached the worst phase owing to its policy of confrontation. If it is proved that the incident was caused by the vessel's mistake or accident of unknown origin, public anger will surely overthrow the regime. Public opinion is that the incident may possibly lead to breaking south Korean society itself. The effect of the incident is enough to deliver a serious defeat to the regime in June 2 elections to the local self-governing bodies and, furthermore, spoil the conservatives' desire to remain in power. It is not fortuitous that the regime announced the investigation results the day when the election campaign started officially, after preparing such things as announcement of the cause of the incident, presidential statement and Defence Ministry statement. The incident the regime has linked with the DPRK is also related to outstanding military issues between south Korea and the United States. The United States plans to transfer in form the "right to command the wartime operation" to south Korea in 2012 for the sake of its strategic interests and rearrange its forces in south Korea under the pretext of "strategic flexibility" for the purpose of immediately dispatching them to hot spots of the world any time. The south Korean regime that already agreed with the plan is now pleading the United States to rectify it out of the desire to keep the U.S. forces in south Korea and invade the north with their help. If it vociferates about "threat from the north" and "instability" on the Korean peninsula by shoving off the responsibility for the incident to the north, it would be possible for the regime to keep the U.S. forces remaining in south Korea. This is what the regime wants. The regime finds a way out in laying the blame for the incident on the north. Even if the vessel met a misfortune for its aging or its own mistake, Lee Myung Bak and the military top brass are entirely accountable for the incident. After the incident, families of the missing crewmen have upbraided the regime for having failed to properly repair the aged vessel on a regular basis though it has collected heavy taxes from the people. They have also lambasted it for making a lie. Even the "National Assembly", taking issue with the "Defence Ministry" on slack military discipline and irresponsible maintenance of military equipment, has set up a special inspection body to reprimand the top brass. South Korean people are urging Lee Myung Bak to make an apology and the regime to step down for the tragic incident caused by the poor system for coping with crisis and for the loose security system. The "story about the torpedo attack by the north" is just what the regime invented to seek a way out of its serious crisis. 4. The DPRK will react to "retaliation" with stronger retaliation and to "punishment" with indiscriminate punishment of its own style. After working out a military plot unprecedented in the history of inter-Korean relations, the south Korean regime is now out of all reason. Lee Myung Bak, at a "meeting of major commanding officers of the army", incited anti-communist confrontation, talking about "practical and tough measures". In the wake of his remarks, such conservatives as Kim Thae Yong, Ryu Myong Hwan and Hyon In Thaek have joined in the racket, clamoring about "decisive punishment" and "due compensation". The south Korean regime has sent its officials to the United States and many other countries to convince them that Cheonan was sunken by the north and refer the incident to the United Nations Security Council. In this way it is seeking to see the north put again in the "list of terrorism sponsors" and have international sanctions intensified against it. For this purpose, the regime has made no scruple of making concessions in the issues of troop dispatch to Afghanistan and the south Korea-U.S. free trade agreement. At Lee's beck and call, the south Korean military have launched a "50-day program for victory", terming the day of the incident a "day of disgrace". They have also held war confabs one after another and projected large-scale joint submarine exercises in the West Sea with the mobilization of a U.S. nuclear-powered submarine, and the resuming of anti-DPRK broadcasting in the frontline areas. Meanwhile, the south Korean regime has made and distributed videos slandering the north over the incident and threatened to bar the passage of the north's ships through the Jeju Straits and totally block inter-Korean economic cooperation and interchange including the business in the Kaesong Industrial Zone. It has charged anyone with opinion different from the investigation results with being "communists" and "pro-north elements", vowing a tough action against "abuses of the results" and "illegal meetings". It has also arrested those who spread doubts about the investigation results and even criticized other countries which have failed to support them, for siding with the north. Such a frantic anti-north campaign of the south Korean regime has been stimulated by the United States. When the vessel was sunken, the U.S. imperialists asserted that the DPRK was involved in the incident. They have instigated the south Korean regime to confrontation with the north, calling the investigation trustworthy and voicing support to its results. As soon as the investigation results and presidential statement came out in south Korea, the United States expressed support to them and its willingness to continue cooperation in policy towards the north. It, through a joint meeting of those from the departments of the State and Defence and the Central Intelligence Agency, discussed forming a special inspection team through the "UN Command" in name only and dealing with the incident through the non-existent "Military Armistice Commission". The U.S. forces in south Korea have taken a combat posture after the 8th Army Command turned into a "war command". All the facts prove that the "story about the north's torpedo attack" is, indeed, a despicable farce orchestrated by the south Korean regime to harm the fellow countrymen in the north. The brigandish farce is a hideous crime to be recorded in the history of inter-Korean relations as it is an open negation and total rejection of the June 15 era of reunification. The army and people of the DPRK already removed the south Korean traitors, including Lee Myung Bak, from the list of the Korean nation. Crime and penalty stem from the same trunk. The reckless confrontation row kicked off by the Lee Myung Bak regime has only resulted in fuelling resentment against the traitors and determination to punish them. The army and people of the DPRK are sharply watching the moves of the south Korean regime to stifle the fellow countrymen in the north and keeping themselves ready to take decisive counteractions. If the south Korean regime shows any slightest sign of provocation, political, military or economic, against the DPRK, backed by the U.S. imperialists, they will immediately and strongly react to it, eliminate all the traitors to the nation from the Korean peninsula and build a rich and powerful country, reunified Korea where all the people enjoy prosperity. There is a saying that regime is temporary and nation is everlasting. We will never deal with south Korea as long as Lee Myung Bak, an anti-north fanatic, remains in power. History and truth are always bound to be clarified and tricksters will not be able to escape a stern judgment of justice regardless of prescription.