U.N. Security Council members appeared to understand the outcome of a multinational probe that found North Korea responsible for the deadly sinking of a South Korean warship, Yonhap News reported, quoting a chief investigator as saying Monday after a briefing to the Council in New York.
The briefing at the U.N. headquarters in New York was part of Seoul's efforts to censure North Korea for the ship attack in March that killed 46 sailors. South Korea referred the case to the Council earlier this month after a five-nation investigation concluded that the communist regime attacked the warship Cheonan.
"We offered sufficient explanations," Yoon Duk-yong, a renowned scientist who headed the investigation, told reporters after the briefing. "Members of the Security Council appeared to understand a lot."
Yoon said his team also urged the Council to respond appropriately to North Korea's provocations. He declined to elaborate, but said questions from Council members focused mostly on technical matters.
North Korea, which has denied any role in the sinking, had been scheduled to speak at the Council after the South Korean briefing, but it was unclear if the session was held as scheduled. Amb. Pak Dok-hun, deputy chief of North Korea's mission at the U.N., told reporters that his mission will hold a press conference Tuesday.
"We are a victim of this incident," Park said. "We have nothing to do with this incident."
The two-hour briefing began with opening remarks by the Council's rotating president, Mexico's Claude Heller, and South Korea's U.N. ambassador Park In-kook. That was followed by the screening of a video showing North Korean torpedo parts being pulled out of the site of the sinking, and a question and answer session, officials said.
France and the United States expressed support for the investigation results and called for a strong punishment of the North. But China and Russia, the North's traditional backers, neither voiced support for the probe nor asked any questions, officials said.
The fate of South Korea's push for a rebuke of the North at the Council hinges on Beijing and Moscow. The two nations, which hold veto power at the 15-member Council, have expressed reservations about the findings of the investigation.