Madam, – Conor O’Reilly’s letter (“Getting the picture in South Korea”, May 28th) on the March 26th sinking of the South Korean navy ship the Cheonan in the Western Sea off the Korean Peninsula is both factually incorrect and misleading.
It is very sad and regrettable to read an article like this which, in spite of clear and definitive evidence found as part of an objective scientific investigation, relies on the groundless rumours and malicious suspicions of conspiracy theorists. Such arguments lack both logical reasoning and any material evidence.
In this case of the Cheonan, however, the scientific evidence and the objective truth are not subject to interpretation.The government of the Republic of Korea, instead of lashing out, assembled an international team of experts to determine the cause of the incident.
Following a month-long investigation, on May 20th, the international joint investigation team, comprising experts from the US, Australia, the UK and Sweden, found that the Cheonan was sunk by a North Korean torpedo attack.
The material evidence gathered by the investigators ruled out any other plausible explanation.
More than 20 states, the EU and the UN secretary general, have joined together to strongly condemn this act of provocation by North Korea. The actions of the North pose a direct challenge to peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula, in the region and beyond.
Arguments such as Mr O’Reilly’s that deny hard evidence will never get one any closer to the truth.
To deny or escape from the inconvenient or unwanted truth is not only cowardly but dangerous. As President Obama stated recently, quoting Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts”. – Yours, etc,