JEAN H. LEE
Associated Press Writer
SEOUL, South Korea – South Korea’s president lashed out Monday at North Korea by suspending trade in a move aimed at crippling the impoverished regime as payback for a torpedo attack on a warship that killed 46 South Korean soldiers.
President Lee Myung-bak also pledged to haul Pyongyang back to the U.N. Security Council for possible additional international sanctions and prohibited North Korea’s cargo ships from passing through South Korean waters – in retaliation for the March 26 sinking.
In Washington, the White House said President Barack Obama fully supports the South’s measures, and the traveling U.S. secretary of state said she was conferring on a response to the North’s “provocative acts” with China, a veto-wielding permanent seat holder on the Security Council.