North Korea Refuses to Apology for Cheonan Sinking

The North Koreans figure they can probably just wait out the Park administration and eventually have the sanctions removed without taking responsibility for the murder of the 104 South Korean sailors:

North Korea on Tuesday ruled out any apology over the 2010 sinking of the South Korean navel corvette Cheonan, and demanded Seoul lift sanctions imposed after the incident in which Pyongyang has always denied involvement.

Two days ahead of the fifth anniversary of the sinking, in which 46 South Korean seamen died, the North’s top military body, the National Defence Commission (NDC), condemned Seoul’s steadfast insistence on the “cock-and-bull” idea that Pyongyang was responsible.

The Cheonan was carrying 104 personnel when it sank near the disputed Yellow Sea maritime border between North and South Korea on March 26.

A South Korean-led investigation involving a team of international experts concluded it was sunk by a North Korean submarine torpedo.

Despite Pyongyang’s heated denials, Seoul responded with the so-called “May 24 measures” — which amounted to an effective trade embargo on North Korea which remains in place today.

South Korea has insisted it will only consider lifting the sanctions after the North acknowledges its responsibility and apologises.

The NDC statement on Tuesday demanded the immediate end of the trade embargo, arguing that it had been “cooked up under the absurd pretext of the … fictitious story” of North Korean involvement in the Cheonan sinking.

“The South should clearly understand that its sophism that ‘apology’ and ‘expression of regret’ have to precede the lifting of the ‘step’ can never work,” a spokesman for the NDC’s policy department said in the statement carried by the North’s official KCNA news agency.

Calling for an apology in such circumstances amounted to an “intolerable mockery” of the North’s dignity, the spokesman said  [AFP]

You can read the rest at the link.