SEOUL, South Korea - The scent of incense filled the air Monday as South Korea's president bowed before a memorial for young sailors killed when their warship sank last month in an explosion the defense minister has blamed on a torpedo.
A solemn President Lee Myung-bak joined mourners in paying his respects to the 46 men who went down with the Cheonan on March 26 after an explosion ripped the ship in two. He laid a single white chrysanthemum at an altar set up for five days of mourning.
"The Republic of Korea will never forget your honorable sacrifice," Lee wrote in a condolence book.
The government has not blamed North Korea outright for the disaster, one of South Korea's worst.
Pyongyang has denied involvement, but suspicion has focused on the regime, given its history of provocation and attacks on wartime rival South Korea.
On Sunday, Defense Minister Kim Tae-young said a torpedo was the most likely culprit. Investigators examining the wreckage announced separately that a close-range, external explosion likely sank the 1,200-ton ship.
Kim did not speculate on who may have fired the torpedo, and said it was still too early to determine the exact cause.
The Cheonan was on a routine patrol when it sank in the rough Yellow Sea, not far from the spot where the two Koreas' militaries have clashed three times since 1999, most recently as November.
The two Koreas technically remain in a state of war because their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. North Korea disputes the maritime border drawn by the United Nations.
The "bubble jet effect" from a torpedo — the rapidly expanding bubble an underwater torpedo blast can create and the subsequent destructive column of water unleashed — was the most likely cause, the defense minister told reporters.
Fifty-eight sailors were rescued. Forty bodies have been recovered, and six missing crewmembers are presumed dead, officials said.
Some 7,000 people have visited an altar in downtown Seoul to pay their respects, from war veterans dressed in medal-bedecked uniforms to mothers explaining to their children about the "uncles" who died protecting the country.
One woman sobbed as she stroked a photo of one of the sailors, most of whom were in their 20s.
"We will never forget you," one note on a message board read. "There, in heaven, I hope you will get to live the life you weren't able to live in this world," read another.
"I feel like it was my friends who died on that ship," said college student Chung Jae-mi, 21. "It hurts me to think that they were as old as I am."
Kim Chang-hwa, 62, traveled from the suburb of Seongnam to downtown Seoul to see the memorial.
"I wish I could find the people responsible for the sinking and kill them myself with my bare hands," he said.
Last week, a Seoul-based activist, Choi Sung-yong, told The Associated Press that a North Korean military officer he spoke to by phone called it a retaliatory attack for the deadly November skirmish. Choi said the officer told him a squad of 13 fired a torpedo from a semi-submersible vessel.
North Korea, meanwhile, has promoted a general in charge of military operations, Seoul officials said.
Kim Myong Guk, chief of operations for the People's Army, had been promoted to a four-star general in 1994. However, he appeared to have been demoted after the November maritime battle, and appeared in photos in January with only three stars.
Latest photos of Kim in state media showed he had regained his four-star rank.
The National Intelligence Service said it was checking whether the apparent promotion was related to the ship sinking.
"He is the person who might have been directly involved" if the North masterminded the blast, analyst Yoo Ho-yeol of Korea University said. But he said it premature to link Kim's promotion to sinking of the Cheonan.
