The Republic of Korea, better known as South Korea, held a remembrance ceremony for the fallen sailors of a warship that was lost in an alleged torpedo attack by North Korea on March 26, 2010.
In a ceremony, the Republic of Korea Navy (RoKN) honored the servicemen who lost their lives in the 2010 North Korean attack in the Yellow Sea that sank the Cheonan warship, South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency reported.
The ceremony was held to mark the 15th anniversary of the tragedy and was held at the 2nd Fleet in Pyeongtaek, 60 kilometers south of the capital Seoul. About 200 people, including survivors of the sunken ship and grieving family members, attended the event.
Remembering one of the darkest days in South Korea’s recent military history, Adm. Yang Yong-mo, the country’s Navy chief, said: “The Republic of Korea’s Navy and Marine Corps have not forgotten the 46 warriors of the Cheonan for one moment and will never forget them going forward.” Additionally, the RoKN pledged to firmly carry out its missions and overwhelmingly respond in the event of North Korea’s provocation.
While the two Koreas are divided by a land border—called the 38th Parallel—they are also surrounded by three seas, including the East Sea, the South Sea, and the Yellow Sea. This means the threat of a naval skirmish, potentially escalating into a conflict between the two Korean states, is never off the table.
One such incident happened in 2010 when the South Korean Cheonan warship sank in the Yellow Sea (an inlet of the Western Pacific Ocean to the east of the Korean Peninsula).
The Sinking Of ROKS Cheonan
The ROKS Cheonan, a Pohang-class warship, was commissioned in 1989 primarily to perform coastal patrol and anti-submarine warfare duties.
The ship saw combat during the First Battle of Yeonpyeong, which was fought between the South Korean and North Korean Navies after North Korea claimed a new maritime boundary called the Northern Limit Line in 1999. At the time, the ship suffered some damage to its stern but survived.
More than a decade after this incident, the 1,200-ton corvette was conducting a routine mission in the Yellow Sea on March 26, 2010, with 104 people on board, when a torpedo fired from North Korea made the ship sink.
ROKS Cheonan reportedly broke into two parts and sank just south of the disputed Northern Limit Line near Baengnyeong Island. Of the 104-man crew, 46 Korean Sailors died in the accident, along with a ROK Navy diver who perished during rescue efforts.
The incident came as a massive setback for the South Korean Navy, which had earlier been involved in multiple low-intensity conflicts and skirmishes with North Korea. In fact, the two sides had been in a skirmish near the disputed maritime boundary a few months before this incident, in November 2009. That skirmish also tragically claimed the lives of two North Korean naval crew.
Nonetheless, the sinking of the ROKS Cheonan was an insurmountable tragedy to have stricken the Korean Peninsula.
In the immediate aftermath of the incident, a host of scenarios were considered—from a North Korean attack to an impact from an errant mine from the time of the Korean War.
However, an investigation was subsequently launched by a panel consisting of international experts from countries like the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Sweden.
While North Korea had denied its role in the sinking of the ROKS Cheonan, the investigation found that the torpedo was fired from a North Korean midget submarine (a small submarine with a crew of a few people).
The researchers concluded that although the torpedo did not hit the ship, the shock wave generated by the explosion nearby ripped the Cheonan in two. The investigation report stated. “We have reached the clear conclusion that [South Korea’s] Cheonan was sunk due to an external underwater explosion. The evidence points overwhelmingly to the conclusion that the torpedo was fired by a North Korean submarine.”
“The detonation location was 3 meters to the port from the center of the gas turbine room and at a depth of 6 to 9 meters. The weapon system used was a CHT-02D torpedo with approximately 250 kilograms of explosives manufactured by North Korea,” the investigation noted, as reported by Yonhap at the time.
According to the report, the shock-wave effect was substantiated by the survivors’ accounts. “Forty-one survivors said that they smelled oil, but there were no witnesses of flames, fire, or a water column, nor were there any injuries from these factors,” Yonhap quoted the full report as saying.
Intriguingly, despite these findings, certain loopholes in that theory could not be explained or justified. For instance, although there were explosive traces on the Cheonan’s hull, no explosive traces were discovered on the torpedo parts that were recovered from the scene.
Either way, it was concluded that the sinking was the result of an explosion caused by a North Korean torpedo. The report asserted that there was no other “plausible explanation” for the sinking of the Cheonan.
North Korea categorically denied the allegations that one of its vessels had struck Cheonan with a torpedo, and tensions increased sharply between the two sides following the publication of the report.
In South Korea, the report’s findings generated an intense debate and resulted in sanctions against Pyongyang. South Korea severely restricted trade. The regulations virtually blocked all inter-Korean economic projects apart from production in the joint Kaesong industrial zone.
Angered by the accusations hurled at it, Pyongyang threatened an “all-out war” in reaction to what it described as “South Korean fabrication.”
In 2015, South Korea requested an apology from North Korea. However, Pyongyang denied the accusation as false and denounced these calls as “intolerable mockery.”
At the time, a statement from North Korea’s top military body carried by the KCNA news agency said, “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.”
Tensions have existed and escalated between the two nations since they are still officially at war. In fact, after the warship sank, the six-party effort led by the US that was aimed at ending North Korea’s nuclear program through negotiations also fell apart. Fifteen years later, an apology from Pyongyang remains elusive.
The RoKN commissioned a new frigate in 2023, named after ROKS Cheonan. However, little has changed between the estranged Koreas.
The 15th anniversary of the sinking of the ROKS Cheonan was marked against the backdrop of escalating tensions between the two sides. While South Korea regularly chastises North Korea’s expanding nuclear weapons and missile program, the latter accuses South Korea of colluding with the US to launch an invasion. The Korean Peninsula remains gripped in tensions.
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