A suspected North Korean spy submarine sank when a tow rope snapped yesterday, and South Korea's navy plans to raise the vessel and see if anyone was aboard. "We still do not know if there are any crew left in the sub or whether they are still alive," Mr Hwang Dong-kyu, a spokesman for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters.
The 25-metre submarine was under 30 metres of water, about a kilometre from a naval dockyard in the north-eastern town of Donghae, he added.
A defence ministry official said earlier the possibility of a group suicide attempt by the sub's crew "could not be ruled out".
The midget submarine, captured after it became snared in fishing nets, sank when a tow rope broke, Mr Hwang said.
The North's official Korean Central News Agency said one of the country's small submarines was "wrecked" while on a training mission and the fate of its crew was unknown.
The incident was apparently raised at a meeting of generals from North Korea and the United Nations Command, the first such talks since 1991.
President Kim Dae-jung of South Korea told his representatives to raise the submarine incident at the talks, but nevertheless sought to play it down.
"The government is managing the situation in a careful and decisive manner," he told a cabinet meeting. "There doesn't seem to be anything strange going on as North Korea has participated in the general-level talks at Panmunjom."