Seoul (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Pyongyang is using the sinking of ROKS Cheonan for propaganda purposes. Radio Free Asia (RFA) has recently released a North Korean propaganda poster depicting a blue warship being smashed in two by a red fist (pictured). The poster was provided by a Chinese trader who had just returned from a business trip to North Korea. Beneath the picture, the poster read, “If you come at us, (we will destroy you) with a single blow!” Meanwhile, North Korea has postponed talks scheduled for yesterday with the US-led United Nations Command.
“I have met several North Korean cadres who, when the Lee Myung Bak administration pointed to the North as the criminal, insisted it was a fabrication,” the trader said. Oddly,” whilst saying the Cheonan was not attacked by them, it is not logical for the authorities to advertise it with this poster depicting the back of a warship broken in two,” the trader pointed out.
“Judging from the shape, it is clear that the warship on the poster is a patrol ship, the same kind of warship as the Cheonan,” a South Korean military source explained. “The North Korean authorities seem to have produced the poster to maintain soldier confidence.”
The South Korean corvette was sunk on 26 March near the maritime border between the two Koreas. North Korea’s Communist regime denied any responsibility for the incident that cost the lives of 46 sailors. An international inquiry blamed instead a North Korean torpedo.
North Korea yesterday postponed talks scheduled today with the US-led United Nations Command. Pyongyang cited unspecified administrative reasons for the delay, UN officials said.
The meeting was due to take place in the village of Panmunjom inside the Demilitarised Zone that separates the two Koreas. Its aim was to pave the way for future higher-level discussions.
