Did N. Korea Really Sink the Warship?

Maybe the evidence against North Korea isn’t so overwhelming after all? Doubts are beginning to arise within South Korea over who is actually responsible for the sinking of the Cheonan in March. Critics, who claim to have performed their own studies, wonder why South Korean President Lee Myung-bak waited nearly two months to blame North Korea on the same day that campaigning opened for local elections. They also argue that it is extremely unlikely that a country as poor as North Korea could execute such a clean hit against a larger military power. "I couldn't find the slightest sign of an explosion," said a former shipbuilding executive-turned-investigative journalist. "The sailors drowned to death. Their bodies were clean. We didn't even find dead fish in the sea." Two South Korean-born U.S. academics have also raised doubts about a so-called bit of "smoking gun" evidence. They believe that the piece of torpedo propeller with a handwritten mark reading "No. 1" in Korean could have easily been fabricated.