By Lee Tae-hoon
Staff Reporter
United States patience with North Korea appears to be wearing thin as an increasing number of experts point to an external blast ― possibly a torpedo from a North Korean submarine ― as the likely cause of the sinking of the Navy frigate Cheonan.
They added that Washington seems to be working on possible countermeasures against Pyongyang as the wreckage of the raised Cheonan may offer irrefutable evidence that the North is to blame.
According to the Chosun Ilbo newspaper, Sylvia Copeland, the senior officer in charge of North Korean affairs at the U.S. National Intelligence Agency (NIA), made a secret visit to Seoul earlier this month.
She reportedly met with senior officials to exchange intelligence on the detailed activities of the reclusive state around the time of the naval disaster and to discuss a possible response.
"Copeland is an officer trusted by NIA Director Dennis Blair," an intelligence source was quoted as saying by the paper. "She was here right after the Cheonan sank due to the need for cooperation with the South. It seems the two countries needed to recheck their system for sharing intelligence about the North."
Both the National Intelligence Service and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade neither confirmed nor denied Copeland's clandestine trip to Seoul to The Korea Times.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State, Kurt Campbell said on April 5 that Washington would refrain from conjecturing whether the North was involved or not.
On April 15, however, he told reporters that the U.S. would not seek talks with the North until the cause of the blast was fully explained.
"Let's find out what happened in the sinking," he said when asked about Washington's moves to revive the talks.
"We told our South Korean friends that our primary objective is to work with them on the recovery of the ship and at that point, we will be able to make some judgments about the way forward."