With US support, SKorea cuts trade with North

[link to news.yahoo.com]

SEOUL, South Korea – South Korea's president slashed trade to impoverished North Korea and pledged to haul Pyongyang before the U.N. Security Council, vowing Monday to make Pyongyang "pay a price" for a torpedo attack that killed 46 sailors.

President Barack Obama offered his full support for South Korea's moves, and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton conferred with China — a veto-wielding permanent seat holder on the Security Council — on the next step in what she called a "highly precarious" security situation.

The March 26 sinking of the Cheonan in the Yellow Sea off the west coast was one of South Korea's worst military disaster since the 1950-53 Korean War. A torpedo fired from a North Korean submarine tore the ship in two, an international team of investigators concluded last week.

President Lee Myung-bak called the attack the latest in a series of provocations from the North, and aimed to strike Pyongyang financially by cutting trade with the country in desperate need for hard currency.

South Korea has been North Korea's No. 2 trading partner, behind China, and the measure will cost Pyongyang about $200 million a year, said Lim Eul-chul, a North Korea expert at South Korea's Kyungnam University.