Clinton: World Must Respond to Korean Attack

(May 26) -- On a visit to Seoul, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said today that the world must respond to "overwhelming evidence" that North Korea torpedoed a South Korean warship earlier this year in a deadly provocation that's pushed the peninsula closer than ever to renewed war.

Meanwhile, Pyongyang threatened today to close the last remaining road connecting the two countries if the South continues to broadcast propaganda messages from speakers positioned on the border. The closure would block access for hundreds of South Koreans who work in an industrial park near their border.

They're the latest moves between the two Koreas as tensions mount since international investigators concluded last week that the North torpedoed the Cheonan warship, causing it to sink on March 26 and killing 46 sailors. Seoul is taking the matter to the U.N. Security Council, and Washington -- which has several thousand U.S. troops based in South Korea -- has backed the country's stance.

"We will stand with you in this difficult hour, and we will stand with you always," Clinton said, speaking alongside South Korean Foreign Minister YuMyung-hwan. Her comments were carried by several news agencies.

"This was an unacceptable provocation by North Korea, and the international community has a responsibility and a duty to respond," Clinton said.

She urged Pyongyang to halt its "policy of belligerence" and said the Cheonan's sinking "requires a strong but measured response." She said the U.S. is consulting with South Korea and other members of the U.N. Security Council on what the nature of that response should be, but didn't elaborate.

"We're very confident in the South Korean leadership, and their decision about how and when to move forward is one that we respect and will support," Clinton said.

North Korea has denied any involvement in the sinking of the Cheonan, and has said that any South Korean retaliation would mean war.

The two Koreas have technically been at war since the 1950s, when the Korean War ended without a peace treaty. Isolated naval clashes have erupted occasionally, but recent tensions over the Cheonan have brought the two countries closer than ever to renewed armed conflict.

Seoul has cut off all trade with the North and has been broadcasting propaganda into its longtime nemesis this week for the first time in six years. Pyongyang responded by cutting all communications and threatening to launch artillery shells across the border.

Today, North Korea's state media carried messages saying its military would "completely block South Korean personnel and vehicles" from a joint industrial park just inside the North Korean border, in a town called Kaesong. Eight South Korean government officials were forced to return to Seoul today after they were expelled from Kaesong, news agencies reported.