Obama backs South Korean president’s response to North’s torpedo attack

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The White House says President Obama “fully supports” the South Korean president and his response to the torpedo attack by North Korea that killed 46 South Korean sailors.

In a statement released early Monday, the White House said Seoul could continue to count on the support of the United States.

The White House said the Obama administration endorsed President Lee Myung-bak’s demand that North Korea immediately apologize and punish those responsible for the sinking of the warship Cheonan and stop its belligerent and threatening behavior.

The March sinking of the Cheonan was the South’s worst military disaster since the Korean War.

Lee said in a televised address that his nation would no longer tolerate North Korea’s “brutality,” and that the regime would pay for the surprise torpedo attack.

He vowed to take Pyongyang to the U.N. Security Council for punishment, and said Seoul would cut all trade with the impoverished nation.

An international team of investigators concluded last week that a North Korean submarine fired a torpedo that tore the ship in two. Lee, addressing the nation from the War Memorial, called it a “military provocation” that was part of an “incessant” pattern of attacks by communist North Korea, including the downing of an airliner in 1987 that killed 115 people.

“We have always tolerated North Korea’s brutality, time and again. We did so because we have always had a genuine longing for peace on the Korean peninsula,” Lee said.

“But now things are different. North Korea will pay a price corresponding to its provocative acts,” he said. “I will continue to take stern measures to hold the North accountable.”

The truce signed in 1953 prevents South Korea from taking unilateral military action. However, Lee said South Korea was prepared to defend itself from further provocations.

The U.N. Armistice Commission was investigating whether the sinking of the ship violated the armistice.

North Korea has steadfastly denied responsibility for the sinking of the Cheonan. Naval spokesman Col. Pak In Ho warned last week in comments to broadcaster APTN that any move to retaliate or punish Pyongyang would mean war.

As Lee spoke Monday, North Korea’s main newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, called the investigation an “intolerable, grave provocation” tantamount to a declaration of war.

“The traitor’s group will not avoid our merciless punishment,” the paper said in commentary carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

North Korea routinely denies involvement in attacks blamed on Pyongyang, including a 1983 bombing in Burma targeting a South Korean presidential delegation and the 1987 downing of the airliner over the Andaman Sea.

The two Koreas’ militaries have clashed in the waters off the west coast.

North Korea disputes the maritime border unilaterally drawn by U.N. forces at the close of the Korean War, and the Koreas have fought three bloody skirmishes since 1999 — most recently in November, when a gunfight killed one North Korean, according to the South Korean military.

South Korean Defense Minister Kim Tae-young said the military would hold drills with the U.S., which has 28,500 troops in South Korea. He said Seoul would also resume psychological warfare against the North that had been suspended in 2004 during a period of warming relations.

Unification Minister Hyun In-taek, laying out measures aimed at punishing North Korea economically, said South Korea would cut off all trade with North Korea and ban its cargo ships from plying South Korean waters. Seoul has been North Korea’s No. 2 trading partner.

However, a joint factory park in the North Korean border town of Kaesong where 110 South Korean firms employ about 42,000 North Koreans, will stay open. Seoul will also continue providing humanitarian help for infants, children and the weak, Hyun said.

-- Associated Press