Irrefutable Evidence Implicates N.Korea, Says Lee

President Lee Myung-bak told Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama on Wednesday that Seoul has found conclusive evidence that North Korea sank the Navy corvette Cheonan in March. "In announcing the results of the Cheonan probe tomorrow, clear and definitive material evidence will be presented that no country in the world and no one can refute," Lee told Hatoyama on the phone, according to Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Lee Dong-kwan.

A high-ranking government official said the evidence discovered at the scene includes a pair of propellers, propulsion shaft and four rudders of a torpedo. "The propulsion shaft bears the serial number." More numerals are believed to have followed, but investigators were apparently unable to decipher the serial number more precisely. One source said the Korean letter meaning number, which was part of the serial number, was handwritten in a style commonly seen in North Korean propaganda material.

Investigators probing the sinking are to announce their findings at 10 a.m. on Thursday. Announcements will include the fact that the format of the serial number and the quality of the material are identical to those found on a North Korean torpedo the military obtained seven years ago. A serial number in Korean meaning "No. 4" is also written on the torpedo obtained seven years ago, one source said. "Investigators have discovered that the font used and the way the serial numbers are written are identical. Investigators concluded that the torpedo was North Korean through analysis of the metallic composition of the propeller and the characters found on the propulsion shaft."