S.Korea: resolve ship, then consider nuclear talks

A woman is reflected on the names of the people who died during the 1950-53 Korean War as she prays for the fallen sailors from the sunken South Korean naval ship Cheonan at the Korean War Memorial Museum in Seoul June 20, 2010.

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea wants to focus on a response to the sinking of one of its warships before resuming multilateral talks to end the North's nuclear arms programmes, Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan was quoted as saying on Tuesday.

The March 26 sinking of the corvette Cheonan near the de facto maritime border between the two Koreas has raised tension in the region and further complicated already hamstrung diplomatic efforts to revive six-nation talks on the denuclearisation of North Korea.

"As North Korea was found to have sunk the warship Cheonan, the government will concentrate on the Cheonan incident at this stage," the South's Yonhap news quoted Yu as saying during a meeting of parliament.

The government "will consult related countries on resuming six-party talks after completing its response", he said.

Six-party talks involving the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia have been stalled for more than a year.

South Korea is pushing for a censure of the North in the U.N. Security Council after a multinational investigation concluded in May that a North Korean submarine torpedoed the Cheonan.

North Korea has denied involvement, saying the investigation was a fabrication and threatening military action if it is punished for the incident.

Isolated North Korea's only major ally and benefactor, China, and fellow veto-holder Russia will be key to the success of any Security Council action and Yonhap quoted Yu as saying South Korea would continue efforts to win over both.

The United States is considering going after the assets of North Korean entities and individuals to punish Pyongyang after the sinking, sources said. (Reporting by John Ruwitch; Editing by Alex Richardson)