Reliable Sources Indicate that the Conclusion that North Korea Sank the South Korean Naval Vessel Is False

June 4, 2010 (LPAC) — Lyndon LaRouche reported that credible sources, drawing on a Chinese investigation into the evidence surrounding the sinking of the South Korean naval frigate Cheonan, suggest that the conclusion of the "international investigation" which blamed North Korea, based on circumstancial evidence, is false. LaRouche has repeatedly challenged the accusations against North Korea as lacking any coherent reason, while it is totally coherent with British efforts to create chaos across Eurasia in the face of the global financial collapse and the threat of Eurasian unity against the London/New York bail out of banks at the expense of nations and peoples.

Yoichi Shimatsu, the former editor of Japan Times, asked "Did an American Mine Sink South Korean Ship?" in the New American Media website on May 27. Shimatsu refers to a "technical assessment by the Chinese military, according to a Beijing-based military affairs consultant to the People's Liberation Army," which dismisses the scanty evidence provided by the five-nation investigation (including, in addition to South Korea, a group of old "Cold War" nations, the U.S., Britain, Australia, and Sweden, which could hardly be expected to be trusted by China and Russia on an issue of this sort).

Shimatsu notes that a joint US/South Korea naval exercise called "Foal Eagle" took place the week preceeding the March 26 sinking of the Cheonan. Both the exercise and the sinking took place in the vicinity of Byeongnyeong Island, where a US/South Korean Anti-Submarine Warfare base is located. The exercise consisted of anti-submarine maneuvers by five missile ships and a mine-laying ship, the USNS Salvor, with a crew of 12 Navy divers. In 2006, the Salvor had trained Thai Marine divers in mine-laying in the Gulf of Thailand. The Salvor is not part of the 7th Fleet, but under the US Military Sealift Command tied to Naval Intelligence, says Shimatsu.

The area in question is guarded by the most sophisticated sonar and acoustic detection equipment available — and yet there was no indication of any submarines or torpedos in the area the day of the sinking of the Cheonan.

Shimatsu does not say that the Chinese accuse the U.S. of an intentional attack, but point to an "inadvertant release" of a "rising mine" planted on the seabed and released to hit a ship dead center, breaking the ship in half, as happened to the Cheonan. He notes that a torpedo, in contrast to a rising mine, puts a hole in the hull and tilts the vessel.

He also notes that the first reports indicated gun powder, which may have come from crude North Korean weapons, but later reports discovered "chemical residues similar to German advanced explosives," as used by NATO forces.

"This is what I thought all along," said LaRouche. "It's not credible to me that it was a North Korean-based operation. It sounds more like a NATO-based operation, an incident created and exploited to destabilize the area of China, Russia, and Japan — and also Vladivostok."