By Jung Sung-ki
Staff reporter
Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Yu Myung-hwan began a three-day trip to Brussels Sunday, aimed at seeking support from his European counterparts on the suspicion of North Korea's involvement in the March 26 sinking of a South Korean warship.
Yu's trip to Europe comes as a multinational investigation team is increasingly pointing to North Korea's possible role in the naval disaster that claimed the lives of 46 sailors.
During his stay, Yu will attend the signing of a basic cooperation agreement with the 27-member European Union. He will also deliver a speech to the 28 members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
Yu plans to meet EU leaders, including EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, Belgian Foreign Minister Steven Vanackere and NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
South Korea plans to refer the incident to the U.N. Security Council once Pyongyang's involvement is confirmed. The investigation team involving experts from the United States, Sweden, Britain and Australia believes a "non-contact, close-range" explosion under the 1,200-ton corvette split the ship in two. But no solid evidence has been found despite efforts to collect debris from the site of incident in the West Sea (Yellow Sea).
Reports said last week that investigators had found explosive residue believed to be from a torpedo on the wreckage.
The fragments were confirmed to be those of a powerful explosive substance called "research department explosive (RDX)" which is stronger than trinitrotoluene.
Some reports said the collected RDX is made in Germany and is used by South Korea and many Western navies. North Korea, China and Russia, in general, don't use the German-manufactured gunpowder.