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PYEONGTAEK, South Korea — Investigators let media have a look at the wreckage of the Cheonan on Wednesday, the day before South Korea was to formally announce that a North Korea torpedo sank the South Korean patrol ship. The wreckage of the March 26 sinking was retrieved from the Yellow Sea near the maritime border between the two Koreas and hauled to South Korea’s Second Fleet Command base in Pyeongtaek. Yoon Duk-yong, an investigator with the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, told reporters Wednesday that evidence from the recovered pieces of the ship points to a torpedo attack....

/begin my excerpts Torpedo's Serial Number Found to be in N. Korean Typeface Ju Yongjung Ryu Yongwon, military affairs reporter 2010.05.19 03:00 An intact pair of 'torpedo propellers’ recovered, engraving style analyzed ... U.S. and Australian experts also agree (Torpedo) exploded 3 meters under the turbine room... Cheonan's lost engine room found Government source said on May 18, "Cheonan was sunk by a torpedo and we found a smoking gun that proves that it is made in N. Korea, after intensive investigation in recent days by civilian-military team." The investigation team recently recovered relatively intact torpedo propellers on the sea...

South Korea has concluded that a North Korean torpedo sank one of its warships in March, killing 46 sailors, according to government officials and domestic news reports on Tuesday. South Korean officials are preparing to announce the results of their investigation later this week. The much anticipated finding will accuse North Korea of committing one of the worst military provocations on the Korean Peninsula since the end of the Korean War, deepening tensions between the countries. North Korea, denying involvement in the sinking, has vowed to retaliate against any attempt to link it with the March 26 explosion that broke...

South Korea will formally blame North Korea on Thursday for launching a torpedo at one of its warships in March, causing an explosion that killed 46 sailors and heightened tensions in one of the world's most perilous regions, U.S. and East Asian officials said. South Korea reached its conclusion that North Korea was responsible for the attack after investigators from Australia, Britain, Sweden and the United States pieced together portions of the ship at the port of Pyongtaek, 40 miles southwest of Seoul. The Cheonan sank on March 26, following an explosion that rocked the vessel as it sailed in...

Cheonan Investigators Find Pieces of Torpedo Propeller Investigators have apparently discovered pieces of a propeller from a torpedo, which could provide valuable clues to exactly what caused the Navy corvette Cheonan to sink on March 26. "In a search using fishing trawlers, we recently discovered pieces of debris that are believed to have come from the propeller of the torpedo that attacked the Cheonan," a high-ranking government source said Monday. "Analysis of the debris shows it may have originated from China or a former Eastern-bloc country like the former Soviet Union." If conclusive evidence is found for North Korea's role...

South Korea, alarmed at what appears to be the North Korean use of a Yu-3 type torpedo to sink one of their warships, has undertaken to reform their armed forces to better deal with tactics like this. North Korea officially denies having anything to do with the loss of the 1200 ton corvette Cheonan, but most North Koreans accept the fact that North Korea did the deed, and northerners are proud of that. Examination of the salvaged wreckage made it clear that it was an external explosion, using military grade explosives, that sank the ship and killed 46 sailors on...

Beijing is approaching the sinking of the South Korean warship Cheonan with caution to avoid damaging its relations with its fraternal communist neighbor North Korea, U.S. officials say. In this April 24, 2010 file photo, a giant offshore crane salvages the bow section of the South Korean naval ship Cheonan off Baengnyeong Island, South Korea. AP/Yonhap, Choi Jae-Ku Chinese President Hu Jintao offered sympathetic remarks on the sinking of the Cheonan during a meeting with South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak at the opening of the Shanghai World Expo. But Chinese state-run media did not report Hu's comments. According to non-Chinese...

South Korea came closer on Thursday to blaming North Korea for the sinking of a navy ship in March that killed 46 sailors with reports saying it plans economic measures to punish Pyongyang for a suspected torpedo attack.South Korea has not officially accused the North of sinking its navy ship but has made little secret of its belief Pyongyang deliberately torpedoed the 1,200 corvette Cheonan near their disputed border in retaliation for a naval clash last year. "The sinking of the Cheonan showed the cold hard realities of division (on the peninsula) for the world to see," South Korea's pointman...

Experts investigating the blast which sank a South Korean warship are checking salvaged metal fragments against a North Korean torpedo which Seoul retrieved seven years ago, a report said Thursday. South Korea has mounted a multinational probe into what caused the explosion which split the 1,200-tonne corvette the Cheonan in two near the disputed border with the North on March 26. "Comparisons are underway to check if metal pieces recovered from the Cheonan are made of material similar to that of a North Korean torpedo," an unidentified military official told Yonhap news agency. The official was quoted as saying the...

Airbus Military successfully conducted the first torpedo launch from one of its C295 Maritime Patrol Aircraft (MPA). This represents an important milestone in the development of the antisubmarine version of the C295 MPA. It is also a significant entry for Airbus Military into the market of Anti Submarine Warfare (ASW) aircraft, currently dominated by veteran aircraft such as the P-3 Orion and the Atlantique. The C295 MPA/ASW includes two under-wing pylons for the installation of torpedoes and other external loads. It also incorporates a Store Management System (SMS), integrated with the Airbus Military Fully Integrated Tactical System (FITS), to control...

South Korea's defence minister confirmed Monday that traces of high explosive were found on the wreckage of a warship sunk by a mystery blast, indicating it was probably hit by a torpedo. The 1,200-tonne corvette was split in two near the tense Yellow Sea border with North Korea on March 26. Suspicion has fallen on the North. Defence Minister Kim Tae-Young, confirming earlier media reports that had been denied by his ministry, said investigators had found traces of RDX explosive, which is widely used in torpedoes. The discovery means a torpedo was the likeliest cause of the disaster, Kim said...

Iranian warship the Jamaran on Sunday test-fired a home-built torpedo for the first time as part of ongoing naval war games in the Gulf, state television's website reported. "This torpedo is anti-submarine and when it is fired from the warship, it automatically hunts for the submarine and destroys it," navy commander Arya Hassani was quoted as saying. The report said the torpedo was fired from the Iran-built Jamaran, which was deployed earlier this year. It has a displacement of around 1,400 tonnes and is equipped for electronic warfare. On Wednesday the Islamic republic's navy began eight days of manoeuvres in...

Traces of explosive from a torpedo have been found on debris from a sunken South Korean warship, fuelling suspicions that North Korea sank the vessel, a report said Thursday. Aluminium fragments from a torpedo casing have also been found, Dong-A Ilbo newspaper quoted a member of a team investigating the blast as saying. President Lee Myung-Bak hinted Tuesday that North Korea was involved in the sinking, which cost 46 lives. He promised a "resolute" response when the cause is established following the multinational probe. The unidentified team member was quoted as saying the explosive traces were found on a funnel...

Kim Jong-il Spokesperson Blames Torpedo Attack On The U.S. Friendly Fire Gus Lubin May. 4, 2010, 7:37 AM Kim Jong-il has been denying any connection to the torpedo attack on South Korea's warship. Now his friend and unofficial spokesperson, Kim Myong Chol, takes it a step further by blaming the U.S. Kim's article in Asia Times claims North Korea had no reason to attack the Cheonan, nor did they have the military capability to launch a stealth attack. Meanwhile, Kim says America was running war games in the area and could easily have sunk the ship accidentally. It's a pretty...

The U.S. government believes a North Korean torpedo attack was the most likely cause of the March 26 sinking of a South Korean warship, a foreign diplomatic source in Seoul said Sunday, citing solid "circumstantial evidence." The remarks come as South Koreans increasingly believe the communist North was responsible for the sinking that left 46 sailors dead. A joint investigation team involving U.S. and other foreign experts has tentatively concluded that the mysterious sinking was due to a "close-range" explosion under the 1,200-ton frigate Cheonan while it was on patrol in waters off the disputed western sea border with North...

Suspicious pieces collected from S Korean warship sinking area English.news.cn 2010-04-30 22:09:27 SEOUL, April 30 (Xinhua) -- Some suspicious metal and plastic pieces of debris have been collected from waters where the South Korean naval frigate "Cheonan" went down late March. Defense Minister Kim Tae-young made the revelation before the parliamentary defense committee on Friday, according to Yonhap News Agency. Kim said so far a total of 540 pieces of debris have been collected from the area, and there are one plastic piece and four aluminum pieces have been found among 193 items that have been analyzed by experts. The...

South Korea Confirms That A Direct Heavy Torpedo Sank The Cheonan, But Still Won't Accuse North Korea Gus Lubin May. 1, 2010, 8:57 AM South Korea's own CSI team has figured out the exact cause of the Cheonan shipwreck, except for one key detail. Here's what they know so far, according to Chosun Ilbo: A team of scientists believes that the Navy corvette Cheonan sank after being hit by a heavy 206 kg torpedo that ran at a speed of 65 km/h.... exploded underwater 2.3 m from the ship with power equivalent to 206 kg of TNT... a series of...

South Korea's military is increasingly confident that a North Korea submarine was involved in the explosion and sinking of a South Korean warship that has left 38 dead and eight missing. The 1,200-ton navy corvette, the Cheonan, was ripped apart on March 26 during a routine patrol near the tense border with North Korea. It was "most likely to be attacked by either a mine or a torpedo from a North Korean submarine," a military official said. South Korean Navy corvette Cheonan sails during a naval operation on the sea March 23, just three days before it sank off Baengnyeongdo,...

A team of scientists believes that the Navy corvette Cheonan sank after being hit by a heavy 206 kg torpedo that ran at a speed of 65 km/h. Bae Myung-jin, a professor at the Sound Engineering Research Lab of Soongsil University, on Thursday said his team analyzed data about the seismic waves generated at the time of explosion of the Cheonan, which were provided by the Korea Meteorological Administration and the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources. "As a result, we presume that the torpedo ran at the Cheonan at the speed of 65.7 km/h and exploded underwater 2.3...

Government officials say the wrecked hull of the Navy corvette Cheonan could in itself provide powerful evidence what kind of external explosion sank the ship on March 26, even if no shrapnel from a torpedo or mine is found. "We'd better not jump to any conclusion until the final outcome of the investigation, but the salvaged hull itself can constitute evidence," Foreign Ministry spokesman Kim Young-sun said Thursday. A senior government official asked, "Is there decisive evidence other than the salvaged hull? It's important to find shrapnel of an explosive device, but that would be nothing but corroborating evidence." The...