The Pentagon is denying reports from Seoul there will be a joint U.S.-South Korean naval exercise as early as next week in response to the conclusion of an international investigation that North Korea sank a South Korean ship in March. Officials also deny that there is a plan for a U.S. aircraft carrier to be involved in any exercises off the Korean coast.

Two senior spokesmen have denied the reports. In an e-mail, Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell said "no carriers are going anywhere near the Korean peninsula anytime soon." Morrell is in Singapore, where U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates will discuss the Korean tensions with his South Korean and Japanese counterparts, as well as with senior defense officials from other Asian nations. Morrell says Gates has made no decision to send an aircraft carrier to the region, and no such decision is expected soon.

In Seoul, the defense ministry spokesman told reporters earlier that a U.S.-South Korean naval exercises will start on Monday in the Yellow Sea, near the area where the South Korean ship was sunk. Some reports said it would involve a U.S. aircraft carrier based in Japan.

But at the Pentagon, spokesman Bryan Whitman said that is not accurate.

"There have not been any decisions with respect to these reports I see about carrier exercises," said Bryan Whitman. "I have talked to you about the exercises that the United States is contemplating and planning with respect to the Republic of Korea. And those are some maritime security exercises and an anti-submarine exercise that is going to take place later this month or early next month."

Whitman had previously announced those two joint U.S.-South Korean naval exercises in response to the ship sinking. Another official says there could be a joint U.S.-South Korean announcement in Seoul on Friday to clarify exactly what exercises will be held, and when, and which ships will be involved.

Some experts caution that if an aircraft carrier is sent it could provoke a strong reaction from North Korea. American aircraft carriers are the largest and most capable navy ships in the world, with dozens of fighter jets and other significant firepower on board.

Shortly before landing in Singapore Thursday evening, Secretary Gates told reporters on his plane the United States is considering additional joint exercises with South Korea, but he did not provide specifics.

"An important element this time will be to reassure the South Koreans of our support as they face these provocations and a North [Korea] that seems even more unpredictable than usual," said Robert Gates.

The international investigation concluded that a torpedo fired by a North Korean submarine sank the South Korean Navy ship the Cheonan, killing 46 men on board. North Korea has denied involvement.

Gates had hoped to discuss the Korean tensions with Chinese officials during his trip, but China said 'no' to his plan to visit Beijing and did not even send a senior delegation to the annual Singapore conference.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has met with South Korea's president and other top officials, as efforts get underway to rally global support for measures against North Korea. Western investigators accuse the North of a deadly naval attack.
Secretary of State Clinton took a positive approach Wednesday toward what many view as an uphill battle in convincing China to help punish North Korea. "I believe that the Chinese understand the seriousness of this issue and are willing to listen to the concerns expressed by both South Korea and the United States," she said.

A multinational investigative team concluded last week a torpedo fired from a North Korean submarine was responsible for sinking a South Korean patrol ship in March, killing 46 sailors. Clinton expressed what she called "greatest admiration" for South Korea's restraint in avoiding an emotional response. She says the thorough and scientific probe it conducted should be helpful in persuading China.
"We hope that China will take us up on our offer to really understand the details of what happened and the objectivity of the investigation that led to the conclusions," Mrs. Clinton stated.

China is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, where South Korea intends to call for new international sanctions against Pyongyang. It has been a historical lifeline of food and fuel to impoverished North Korea, but -- on a more practical level -- is reluctant to do anything that might destabilize the country and create a security threat right next door.

In a joint news conference with Clinton, South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan said he too believes the investigation report will bring even hesitant nations around.

He says it may take time in the case of China and Russia, but that they cannot deny the facts forever.

Beyond punishing the North for unacceptable behavior, Secretary Clinton called upon the international community to get North Korea to change course. "There's a different path for North Korea. And, we believe it's in everyone's interest, including China, to make a persuasive case for North Korea to change direction," she said. "They need to look internally toward what they can do to improve the standing of their own people and provide for a different future."

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao is scheduled to arrive in Seoul on Friday.

North Korea has begun to freeze ties with the South, which already halted most trade with Pyongyang in retaliation for the sinking of a South Korean warship. The North has denied responsibility for the attack on the vessel and is accusing the South of launching a "smear campaign" against it.
Pyongyang has expelled eight South Korean government officials from a joint factory park in the North. And, it is threatening to block what little cross-border traffic exists.

The Unification Ministry in Seoul says hundreds of South Korean managers and other workers from the South were allowed to enter the industrial complex in the west coast Kaesong border city, Wednesday.

But ministry spokesman Chun Hae Sung tells reporters North Korea quickly acted on other aspects of its threat to cut all communications ties with the South.

He says Pyongyang Wednesday halted contact between the Red Cross delegations in the truce village, Panmunjom, and the North Korean Navy contacted the South to inform it that all marine communications between the two Korea's are now cut.

Relations between the two Koreas have deteriorated steadily since the Cheonan, a South Korean naval vessel in the Yellow Sea, exploded a month ago, killing 46 crew members. An international investigation concluded last week that the coastal patrol warship was hit by a North Korean torpedo.

South Korea's defense ministry tells VOA News that plans to send tens of thousands of leaflets northward by ballon have been delayed because of wind conditions, but they could go aloft as early as Thursday. Officials say the leaflets are intended to inform North Koreans about the sinking of the South Korean naval vessel. The North views Southern pamphleteering as hostile propaganda.

South Korea's military is using loudspeakers along the border, silenced for six years, and re-instituting FM broadcasting to the North.

North Korea's state television newscaster announced such propaganda will not be tolerated.

The North Korean newscaster says it will open fire on the South Korean loudspeakers and destroy them.

Pyongyang says a resumption of the propaganda campaign will also compel it to totally shut down the Kaesong industrial complex, where more than 100 South Korean firms employ about 42,000 North Korean workers.

The two countries have no diplomatic relations and technically remain at war following a 1953 truce which ended the three-year Korean War.

The United States, which has 28,000 troops in South Korea, has hurriedly announced plans for several joint military exercises in the coming month. In the past, Pyongyang has strongly condemned U.S.-South Korean drills, claiming they are preparations for an invasion of the North.

North Korea has angrily rejected a multinational investigative team's findings that it was responsible for the deadly sinking of a South Korean naval ship. The investigators says it is beyond doubt a North Korean submarine fired a torpedo and split the ship in half.

North Korea's National Defense Commission issued a statement Thursday calling the international team's findings "sheer fabrication," and a "conspiratorial farce." It warns Pyongyang will meet any retaliation with "tough measures, including an all-out war." The North is also vowing to send a team to South Korea to inspect the evidence for itself.

Just a short while earlier, the international team made public its conclusion that North Korea was involved in the sinking of the Cheonan, a South Korean warship. It marked the first time South Korea has explicitly and publicly blamed North Korea for the sinking.

Yoon Duk-yong is the South Korean co-director of the team. He says it is clear the sunk by a torpedo made in North Korea. He says the evidence points overwhelmingly to the conclusion that the torpedo was fired by a North Korean submarine. He says there is no other plausible explanation.

Yoon says his team can also confirm a submarine team left a North Korean naval base two or three days before the attack, and returned home two or three days after the ship was sunk.

The team went into deep forensic detail. South Korean military intelligence analyst Hwang Won-dong pointed to what he says are recovered pieces of a torpedo with Korean language markings. He says he knows of no other nation besides North Korea that would mark their torpedoes using the Korean alphabet.

Lee Geun-duk, an explosives analyst, pointed to residue found both on the recovered torpedo parts and on the damaged hull of the Cheonan. He says the team determined the substance found on the torpedo propeller and on the Cheonan are identical.

The Cheonan investigative team brought in analysts from the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom and Sweden. U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Thomas Eccles, who directed the American investigative team, says none of the nations involved in the probe dispute its conclusions.

"The international team, in close cooperation with the Republic of Korea joint investigative group, worked both in a collaborative way - very closely together - and also employing our separate tools and methods... and in all of those, we found agreement both within the Republic of Korea and all of the international team," said Eccles.

Forty-six South Korean sailors were killed in the sinking of the Cheonan. A South Korean military reprisal is seen as almost impossible, because of the chance that action could escalate into a devastating war. South Korea says it will call for coordinated international action via the United Nations Security Council and the United Nations Commission that monitors an armistice between the two Korea's.

South Korea's defense minister says a torpedo was the likely cause of an explosion that sank a warship near the tense border with North Korea last month.

Defense Minister Kim Tae-young told reporters Sunday that he believes a bubble jet effect caused by a heavy torpedo is the most likely cause of the disaster.

A bubble jet is a powerful shock wave and high-pressure gas bubble resulting from an explosive device detonating beneath a vessel.

Kim was also quoted by the French news agency as saying "various other possibilities are also under review."

Investigators say there is evidence that the 1,200-ton Cheonan patrol ship exploded because of a strong impact from the outside. Seoul has refrained from blaming Pyongyang for the incident until its experts carry out a thorough investigation. Pyongyang has denied any involvement.

South Korea raised the front section of the warship with a large crane Saturday.

A body was found inside the recovered section, bringing the official death toll to 40. Six sailors remain missing and are believed dead. The coast guard rescued 58 crew members from waters near the blast site.

There were 104 sailors on board the ship when it exploded and sank March 26 during a regular patrol in the waters near the disputed border with North Korea.

North Korea Saturday warned the United States and South Korea that it will employ "all means, including the nuclear deterrent" if they intrude into its territory. The state-run Korean Central News Agency quotes army chief Ri Yong-Ho as saying North Korea's armed forces are "fully ready to frustrate any provocation of the aggressors at a single blow."

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Friday urged Pyongyang not to "engage in provocative actions," and said she hopes there is no "miscalculation" or action that could lead to conflict.

Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.