SKorean naval ship sinks near NKorea; 46 missing

BAENGNYEONG ISLAND, South Korea – Hopes faded Saturday for the rescue of 46 marines missing after an explosion sank a South Korean military ship near the disputed sea border with rival North Korea in one of the South's worst naval disasters.

Navy and coast guard vessels, as well as air force planes, were searching the waters near South Korea's Baengnyeong Island where the 1,200-ton Cheonan sank early Saturday in bad weather and rough waves during a routine patrol mission.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff said an explosion tore a hole in the rear of the Cheonan late Friday night, shutting off the engine, wiping out power and taking the ship down a little over three hours later. Officials said they did not have specific information about where on the ship the explosion occurred.

Despite early fears of an attack, there was no immediate indication that North Korea — which lies about 10 miles (17 kilometers) from Baengnyeong and was visible Saturday from the island — was to blame, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said, but troops kept a vigilant watch.

Joint Chiefs spokesman Park Seong-woo said the military will issue a judgment on the cause of the accident after rescue teams search and salvage the vessel for analysis.

Most of the vessel was underwater Saturday, though part of its hull was visible. Officials have yet to confirm any deaths. Some of the 58 rescued crew members were treated for minor burns, broken bones and abrasions.

At a naval base in Pyeongtaek, south of Seoul, wails filled the air as relatives checked a list of missing marines. One man, his brow furrowed with worry, stared blankly out the window; another wept silently, his forehead pressed up against a television screen listing the missing crew members' names.

"Where are you? Where can you be?" one mother screamed.

President Lee Myung-bak ordered officials to quickly determine what caused the ship to sink and make all efforts to rescue the crew, spokeswoman Kim Eun-hye said.

The ship went down near a disputed maritime border that has been a flash point between the two Koreas. Their militaries have fought three bloody skirmishes in the area in recent years. South Korea uses Baengnyeong Island as a military outpost.

The explosion prompted a number of crew members to jump into the water, the military said.

"Yells and screams filled the air," witness Kim Jin-ho, a seaman who was on a local passenger ship bound for Baengnyeong, told cable news channel YTN. "Marines on deck were desperately shouting: 'Save me!'"

First Lt. Baek Jae-woo, a lecturer on vessel structure and design at the Republic of Korea Naval Academy, said it won't be clear what caused the explosion until the ship is towed. "But at this point, all three scenarios — missile attack, internal explosion, torpedoes — are possible causes."

He said the Cheonan was designed to carry weaponry for coastal defense and a full frontal attack.

Hopes for the missing were diminishing with each hour, a coast guard official said. He said humans can survive in winter waters if rescued within two hours, noting that the temperature of the Yellow Sea at the time was between 37 and 41 degrees Fahrenheit (3 and 5 degrees Celsius). He asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue.

The incident is one of South Korea's worst naval disasters. Local media reported that the country's worst maritime accident occurred in 1974, when a ship sank off the southeast coast in stormy weather, killing 159 sailors and coast guard personnel. In 1967, 39 sailors were killed by North Korean artillery.

The explosion sparked fears of another attack. On Friday, North Korea's military threatened "unpredictable strikes" against the U.S. and South Korea in anger over a report the two countries plan to prepare for possible instability in the totalitarian country.

The two Koreas remain locked in a state of war because the three-year Korean War ended in 1953 with a truce, not a peace treaty.

However, there were no signs of North Korean military movements, presidential spokeswoman Kim said.

"It's looking more and more like it was just an accident that happens on a ship," Carl Baker, an expert on Korean military relations at the Pacific Forum CSIS think tank in Honolulu, said by telephone. He said North Korea was unlikely to attack the far more powerful South Korean military.

At the naval base in Pyeongtaek, many relatives waited for news, their faces buried in tissues and handkerchiefs. However, about 150 — fed up with the lack of information — pushed their way past security to confront military officials.