North Korea faces censure over warship sinking

Arriving in Tokyo yesterday ahead of a visit to Beijing and Seoul, Mrs Clinton said that the US, Japan, South Korea and China are discussing an appropriate reaction to the international investigation that blamed North Korea for the incident.

She said the report proves a North Korean sub fired a torpedo that sank the ship, the Cheonan on March 26 and that it could no longer be "business as usual" in dealing with the matter and that there must be "an international response."

While it was "premature" to discuss exact options or actions that will be taken in response, she said it was "important to send a clear message to North Korea that provocative actions have consequences.

"The evidence is overwhelming and condemning. The torpedo that sunk the Cheonan ... was fired by a North Korean submarine," she said.

North Korea said for a second day that war clouds loomed over the divided peninsula, and has asked to send its own team to investigate the site.

South Korean Defence Minister Kim Tae-young called the

request "irrational and incomprehensible."

Instead, Kim's ministry asked the UN Command's Military Armistice Commission, which oversees the truce, to conduct a probe separate from the multinational investigation.

"This incident was clearly a military attack against our naval warship that was carrying out a routine patrol operation – an explicit violation of the truce agreement," Deputy Defence Minister Chang Kwang-il said.

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak called the sinking a "military provocation" and said it violated the UN Charter as well as the truce that ended the fighting in the 1950-53 conflict.

"We were caught in a perfect military ambush by North Korea while our people were resting in the late hours," Lee said. "Because this is a serious and important issue, I believe there must not be a single mistake in all of our responsive measures, and that we must be highly prudent."

On Thursday he vowed to take "resolute counter measures" against the North. But military retaliation looked too dangerous and less of an option given the vulnerability of South Korea's capital, Seoul, and its 10 million some residents to North Korean artillery located just across the border.

Lee has not yet said what steps South Korea will pursue, but he is expected to address the nation on Monday or Tuesday.