South Korea will take the case of its sunken naval ship to the UN Security Council, the presidential administration said on Sunday.
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak will deliver a speech about the incident at the UN Security Council on Monday, presidential spokesman Lee Dong-kwan said.
Forty-six sailors died when the 1,200-ton Cheonan corvette sank on the night of March 26 near the disputed Northern Limit Line (NLL) in the Yellow Sea after a sudden explosion. A team of international investigators confirmed on Thursday suspicions that the ship was destroyed by a torpedo launched from a North Korean submarine.
North Korea reacted angrily on Friday to the accusations, saying it would withdraw from the nonaggression pact with South Korea if Seoul continued to accuse Pyongyang of sinking one of its warships.
The two countries remain technically at war as their 1950-1953 conflict ended only in an armistice. Naval clashes between the South and the North over the disputed sea border took place in 1999, 2002 and last year.
The conclusions of the investigation led to a further deterioration of the already sour relations between the two Koreas and have jeopardized international efforts to stop Pyongyang's controversial nuclear weapons and ballistic missile development programs.
Talks on North Korea's nuclear program, involving Russia, Japan, China, the United States and the two Koreas, stalled last April when Pyongyang pulled out of the negotiations in protest against the United Nations' condemnation of its missile tests.
North Korea, which is subject to international sanctions over its nuclear program, has warned Seoul of a stern response if the South retaliated with new sanctions against Pyongyang over the alleged attack on its warship.
MOSCOW, May 23 (RIA Novosti)
