Author: Narushige Michishita, GRIPS, Tokyo

If North Korea did indeed sink the South Korean frigate Cheonan, it must have had three major objectives in mind.

First, Pyongyang wanted to create a situation where the signing of a peace agreement appears to be a strategically good option for the United States. Historically, whenever North Korea has proposed a peace agreement, it had raised tensions in the Yellow Sea and the demilitarised zone (DMZ). In 1973 North Korean naval vessels started to cross the Northern Limit Line (NLL), the quasi maritime demarcation line. Read more…