考研阅读素材：《经济学人》韩国的沉没军舰.docxVIP

For personal use only in study and research; not for commercial use 袇 Playing for time 莅 If North Korea did deliberately destroy a South Korean warship, what next? 芃 IT WAS a dignified address. Before wiping tears from his eyes with a folded handkerchief, President Lee Myung-bak (above) read out the names of 46 sailors who died last month when their ship, the Cheonan, exploded in South Korean waters. He carefully avoided pinning the blame on anyone, but on April 22nd, Yonhap, South Korea’s news agency, rep orted that the government’s military -intelligence agency, using intelligence gathered jointly with America, had concluded the regime in North Korea had deliberately attacked and destroyed the 1,200-tonne warship. 莂 Even if tangible evidence of North Korean involvement emerges, the president ’s caution on April 19th will nevertheless be understandable. Hot-blooded retaliation against a nuclear-armed despot would be fraught with danger for the peninsula, and for relations between America and China, the main backers of south and north respectively. 羀 But ever since a preliminary investigation of the Cheonan stern concluded that the blast did not come from on board the vessel,  ’s salvaged suspicions have turned towards North Korea. This, analysts say, puts Mr Lee in the most delicate position of his two-year-old administration.  If the suspicions prove correct, a tough response would be expected and perhaps unavoidable. Yet Mr Lee had been hoping to focus on showing off South Korea’s economic prowess as host of the Group of 20 this year — not the missile threat on its doorstep. The pressure on Mr Lee is all the greater because local elections are due on June 2nd, and they may serve as an unofficial referendum on his handling of the crisis. 莅 So far, the regime in Pyongyang has only indirectly denied involvement. After three weeks of silence on the incident, it said on April 17th in a news report: “Failing to probe the cause of the sinking of the ship, th