Despite the confident and harsh manner in which President Lee Myung Bak condemned North Korea for attacking and sinking a South Korean naval vessel, his country is deeply split between the conservative anti-Pyongyang forces and the opposition forces favoring promotion of closer ties with the North.
Although Lee appears to have no choice but to act tough against the communist regime to the north, partly in view of the presidential election slated in two years, he has been unable to come up with concrete means of punishing Pyongyang. In the end, he may have to rely on strategies to be worked out by two major powers — the United States, which is South Korea's strongest ally, and China, which has long been North Korea's principal benefactor.
The incident occurred March 26 off the west coast of the Korean Peninsula, when the South Korean Navy's corvette Cheonan exploded and sank, killing 46 members of its crew. Initially, Seoul was inclined to support the theory that the ship sank due to an accident, saying Pyongyang could not have resorted to such a violent act of attacking the warship at a time when it was seeking economic assistance from other countries in the aftermath of its disastrous November redenomination of its currency, the won.