By Kim Young-jin
Staff Reporter
The United States is urging China to take a constructive role when the probe into the sinking of the South Korean Navy vessel Cheonan is concluded, a senior U.S. diplomat said Monday.
Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell told reporters in Hong Kong the two countries have discussed the investigation into the March 26 sinking of the Cheonan, which took the lives of 40 South Korean seamen and left six missing.
"We explained our role in taking recovery efforts and encouraged China to play a responsible role," he said. "China expressed deep concerns for the loss of life and the tragedy. I think they are watching carefully in terms of how this process is playing out."
The diplomat, who was in Hong Kong to speak at an international media conference, did not elaborate further.
American investigators are part of a multinational team probing the incident that also includes experts from Australia, Sweden and South Korea.
The exact cause has yet to be determined, but speculation of North Korean culpability shot up last week when Defense Minister Kim Tae-young said a torpedo was most likely responsible.
U.S. officials mostly favored the side of caution Monday, stressing the probe is ongoing and that the United States will draw its conclusions from the final investigation report.
In regards to Kim's assessment, White House Spokesman Robert Gibbs said, "I don't want to get into hypotheticals at this point. We obviously would refer you to them on the current investigation. And we'll have more to say when they have completed that investigation."
State Department spokesman Phillip Crowley echoed the remark. "I think (Kim's) was a conditional statement," he said. "I don't know that the investigation has arrived at that final judgment. When it does, we'll draw implications from it."
But one U.S. military official said the United States believes a torpedo caused the sinking, CNN reported Monday.
The official said the United States supports the theory put forth by Kim ― the ship went down as the result of an underwater blast, but that the explosive device did not directly hit the ship's hull.
The call for Chinese cooperation came after Seoul has hinted it could, if hard evidence of North Korean involvement emerges, take the issue to the U.N. Security Council and seek tighter sanctions to punish the already-reeling North.
President Lee Myung-bak and his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao are expected to discuss the Cheonan situation, among other topics, when Lee visits Shanghai to attend the opening ceremony of the 2010 World Expo.
China, a permanent member of the Security Council with veto power, supported the sanctions slapped on the North for its missile and nuclear tests last year. But further instability within the North could cause an exodus of refugees to stream into China ― a scenario that could complicate the push for further international economic punishment.
The Chinese President is expected to express his condolences to President Lee for the incident. Beijing broke nearly a month of silence on the incident last week, describing it as a tragedy and calling for a thorough investigation.