U.N. council condemns attack on S.Korean ship

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council Friday condemned an attack leading to the sinking of a South Korean warship in March, but stopped short of directly blaming North Korea.

The council statement, by not identifying an attacker, was able to win consent from Pyongyang ally China for unanimous approval and also avoid further alienating North Korea, which the West wants to draw back to six-party talks on ending its nuclear program.

The council expressed "deep concern" over findings by a South Korean-led inquiry that North Korea had sunk the naval corvette Cheonan, but noted that Pyongyang had denied responsibility.

North Korea's U.N. ambassador described the statement as a "great diplomatic victory" for his country.

The envoy, Sin Son-ho, also said Pyongyang hoped to "continue the denuclearization process on the Korean peninsula through six-party talks." It was not clear whether Pyongyang now wanted to return to those talks, which it declared dead in late 2007.

The council statement differed little from a draft agreed to by its five permanent members. The draft was handed by the United States to all 15 council members Thursday.

South Korea has blamed the March 26 sinking, which killed 46 of its sailors, on a North Korean torpedo attack. It took the issue to the Security Council on June 4, requesting action to deter "further provocation by North Korea."

Putting together a council statement took weeks, slowed by China, which is believed to be worried about sacrificing influence in Pyongyang while North Korea's leader Kim Jong-il is trying to prepare succession plans in his secretive state.

The Security Council said the attack -- a term ruling out that the Cheonan could have been sunk accidentally -- "endangers peace and security in the region and beyond."

"The Security Council condemns the attack which led to the sinking of the Cheonan," it said.

It praised Seoul for a restrained reaction to the sinking, underscored "the importance of preventing further such attacks or hostilities against (South Korea)" and called for the maintenance of peace and security on the Korean Peninsula.

WRITTEN INTO THE RECORD

The agreed text is a so-called presidential statement, which is written into the record of the council and requires the consent of all 15 members. But it is less weighty than the council resolution South Korea had hoped for.

Following the formal reading of the statement to the council by its current president, Nigerian Ambassador Joy Ogwu, South Korean envoy Park In-kook shook hands with diplomats and hugged U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice.

Both Rice and Park sought to make the best of the fact that the statement did not directly blame North Korea.

"Our view is that the message to North Korea is in fact quite clear," Rice told reporters. "It uses the term 'attack' repeatedly, which I think you don't have to be a scholar of the English language to understand is not a neutral term."

In Washington, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the statement "underscores ... the reality that a peaceful resolution of the issues on the Korean Peninsula will only be possible if North Korea fundamentally changes its behaviour."

North Korea has suggested that the Cheonan could have been sunk accidentally, for example by hitting rocks. It has said it would be willing to cooperate with the South on a new probe, and Friday proposed military talks with the United States.

South Korea's joint civilian and military investigation team, which included experts from the United States, Australia, Britain and Sweden, concluded that a North Korean submarine fired a torpedo that sank the corvette.

"I'm sure that today's strong and unanimous statement will serve to make North Korea refrain from further attack or provocation," Park told journalists.

Analysts in South Korea said the compromise statement could bode well for the six-party talks -- aimed at compensating North Korea for ending its nuclear program -- which grouped the two Koreas, China, Japan, the United States and Russia.

A senior U.S. official, who asked not to be identified, said North Korea had been inching back towards rejoining the talks, but wanted to first negotiate a Korean peninsula peace treaty to replace the armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War.

(Editing by Doina Chiacu)