After an initial examination of the stern of the Navy corvette Cheonan on Thursday, the military tentatively concluded that the corvette had not been hit directly by a torpedo but broke in two due to a bubble jet created by an underwater explosion. The stern was raised 20 days after the corvette sank in the West Sea on March 26.
The military also speculates that a torpedo attack was a much more likely cause of the explosion than a mine.
"In an initial examination of the Cheonan's stern, South Korean and U.S. investigators found no traces showing that the hull had been hit directly by a torpedo," a senior source at the Defense Ministry said. "Instead, they found traces proving that a powerful explosion caused possibly by a torpedo had occurred underwater. The explosion created a bubble jet that eventually generated an enormous shock wave and caused the ship to break in two."
The investigators are carefully examining the stern, believing that the underwater explosion occurred not below midship but below the center-left. The metal plate on the stern's floor was bent upward and the stern was torn obliquely, about 6 m further on the portside from the aft of the ship than on the starboard. The portside deck was pushed up in an inverted-V shape, showing that a powerful explosion occurred below and sent a shockwave upward. |