"We have supported South Korea's decision to bring this matter to the Security Council," State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said. "In the coming days, the council has the opportunity to consider it and an appropriate response."
Earlier in the day, South Korea's U.N. ambassador, Park In-kook, delivered a letter to Mexican Ambassador Claude Heller, the rotating chairman of the 15-nation council this month, to ask for "some action by the Security Council commensurate with the seriousness" of the sinking of the Cheonan in the Yellow Sea in March that killed 46 sailors.
North Korea denies involvement and has threatened all-out war if sanctioned.
South Korea in response severed all ties with North Korea, except for the joint industrial complex in the North's border town of Kaesong.
Crowley did not say what kind of action South Korea and the U.S. might seek at the Security Council.
"I don't think anyone's necessarily got a specific idea of exactly what the response should be," he said. "I don't think that South Korea called, necessarily, for a specific response. We'll consider this within the Security Council, and I think, as South Korea's indicated, it wants the Security Council to act appropriately, given the severity of the North Korean sinking of the Cheonan."
In New York, Park did not elaborate on what kind of action South Korea seeks against North Korea, saying, "I understand Security Council members will make a decision through proper procedures as we've just presented (the letter) to the Security Council."
The South Korean envoy said that his government will present a concrete position after further consultations with council members.
The council president has pledged to "do his utmost to deal with the issue, although the Security Council currently faces the nuclear issue on Iran and other crisis in the Middle East," Park said.
Diplomats here say that it will take considerable time before the council takes any action, whether a resolution or non-binding presidential statement, It took less than a couple of weeks for the council to adopt resolutions against North Korea for its nuclear and missile tests.
South Korean Vice Foreign Minister Chun Yung-woo said earlier this week that Seoul wants to send "a symbolic and political message" to North Korea rather than additional sanctions, apparently taking consideration of the lukewarm attitude of China and Russia, which have veto power on the council.
Beijing and Moscow have neither endorsed the outcome of the international probe, which blamed the incident on a North Korean submarine, nor officially blamed Pyongyang, just calling on relevant parties to "avoid conflict" and "maintain peace and stability" on the Korean Peninsula.
North Korea is already subject to an overall arms and economic embargo for its nuclear and missile tests.
"We expect the Security Council to send a political, symbolic and moral message that such acts as the Cheonan incident cannot be tolerated and that North Korea should be held accountable and should not repeat this kind of military provocation," Chun said Monday. "We have every means to impose sanctions unilaterally or multilaterally in cooperation with our allies, without additional Security Council action."
In a related move, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said in Singapore earlier in the day that the U.S. will delay the joint military exercise with South Korea in the Yellow Sea, originally planned in the coming days as a show of force against North Korea, to wait for the Security Council to take action.
Speaking to the annual security forum of defense ministers from 28 countries, called the Shangri-La Dialogue, in Singapore, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak also urged the international community to send a strong warning to North Korea to prevent a recurrence of such a provocation.//Yonhap
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
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