hankyoreh

Gyeonggi Province

Marine guards on duty at Baengnyeong Island reportedly told the military during its own investigation that they did not witness a water column at the time of the sinking of the Cheonan the night of March 26, and they presumed that it was thunder and lightening. This stood in stark contrast to the military’s announcement that Marine guards on duty on Baengnyeong Island witnessed a water column at the time of the sinking of the Cheonan. The Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) learned this during their audit of the Cheonon incident, but since the cause of the sinking was not the subject of the audit, it was omitted from the BAI’s interim audit announcement on June 10.

According to explanations by military officials, two Marines at a maritime guard post on Baengnyeong Island, some 2.5 kilometers from the sight of the sinking, heard a “bang” like thunder and saw a white flash like lightning at around 9:22 p.m. on March 26. One of the Marines, identified as a Corp. Park, said in his testimony that while he was on patrol, he heard a crash and looked out to sea, where about 4 kilometers away he saw a white flash about 100 meters high and 20-30 meters in width, which disappeared about 2-3 seconds later. The other Marine, Corp. Kim, said the white flash spread out around the surroundings and dissipated. In several military investigations, they reportedly consistently testified that they judged the flash and sound to be lightening and thunder and reported it as such.

One source said it was impossible to draw a conclusion about the nature of the flash that the Marines saw on patrol, but no marine stated that they witnessed a water column for certain. He pointed out that the military’s announcement that marines on patrol observed a water column was just the military’s judgment, and not a true fact.

The existence of a water column was an important basis presented by the joint civilian-military investigation team that concluded that the Cheonan sank after being hit by a torpedo from a North Korean submarine. Opposition parties and civic organization People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy (PSPD) have raised questions about the existence of the water column, claiming that the evidence of a great water column, which would have been caused by a torpedo attack, was weak.

The joint civilian-military investigation team, however, have refuted this, claiming that first that Marines on patrol on Baengnyeong Island witnessed the water column, and second that the faces of sailors on lookout on the port side of the Cheonan were splattered with water, which was consistent with a water column caused by an underwater explosion. Surviving sailors testified at a press conference held at an Army hospital in Seoul on April 7 that they did not witness a water column, and that they not did they get wet.

In response, the Ministry of National Defense said that since the sailors on lookout were at the bow of the vessel, they did not initially understand what was happening, but when they later thought about it, they testified that they believed they were in fact doused with water. The ministry also disagreed with claims that if there was no water column, there could not have been a torpedo attack.

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