SKorea's top diplomat: 'Obvious' NKorea sank ship

SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea's foreign minister said Wednesday it was "obvious" that North Korea fired a torpedo that sank one of the South's warships in March, killing 46 sailors.

Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan told reporters that investigators have enough evidence of North Korean involvement in the sinking of the Cheonan to warrant taking Pyongyang to the U.N. Security Council and would be presenting their findings Thursday.

Yu's comments are the first by a South Korean official clearly pointing the finger at North Korea for one of the worst attacks on the South since the end of the Korean War in 1953.

A thorough and exhaustive investigation revealed that a "strong underwater explosion generated by the detonation of a torpedo caused the Korean battleship to split apart and sink," he said in a speech to Seoul-based European business executives.

Asked later by reporters if North Korea sank the ship, Yu said: "I think it's obvious." He declined to provide further details ahead of the official release of the multinational investigation.

North Korea has denied involvement in the sinking of the Cheonan near the Koreas' tense western maritime border on March 26. North Korean vice parliamentary speaker Yang Hyong Sop criticized Seoul for "unreasonably" linking Pyongyang to the sinking earlier this week, according to Pyongyang's state radio station.

However, investigators will lay out evidence showing that a North Korean torpedo attack triggered the explosion, a U.S. official in Washington said on condition of anonymity because the findings had not yet been officially announced.

Investigators have collected damning evidence pointing to Pyongyang's involvement in the blast, local media said. Fifty-eight sailors were rescued; 46 died.

Fragments of a torpedo propeller found near the disaster site are similar to parts from a North Korean torpedo that South Korea obtained seven years ago, the Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported Wednesday, citing unidentified government officials.

A serial number on the torpedo propeller was written in a font typically used in North Korea, and traces of explosives found in the wreckage resemble the gunpowder used in the North Korean torpedo retrieved in 2003, the newspaper said.