Human torpedoes blamed for sinking of South Korean ship
By IANSFriday, April 23, 2010
LONDON - North Korean “human torpedoes” have been blamed for last month’s sinking of a South Korean ship, a media report said Friday.
The elite North Korean “human torpedo” squads were said to involve small submarines, Sky News reported.
The small vessels are taken so close to the target that their torpedoes or explosives blow up both the target and the attackers.
The South Korean Navy ship carrying 104 crew members sank in the Yellow Sea March 26.
The 1,500-tonne ship sank near the island of Baengnyeong, which is near North Korea but controlled by South Korea.
The South Korean navy had been alerted by Korea’s Defence Intelligence Command that North Korean suicide squads were being deployed, according to South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo reported.
The vessels navigated by the suicide squad can be also be timed to explode while the attackers escape from the vessel.
“It is the military intelligence’s assessment that the North attacked with a heavy torpedo,” a military source was quoted as saying by the news agency Yonhap.
