“We are of the view that the most reasonable way of settling this incident is that the north and south of Korea sit together to probe for the truth,” North Korean UN Ambassador Sin Son-ho said in a letter to Mexican UN Ambassador Claude Heller, current president of the council.
It was dated June 29 and obtained by Reuters on Wednesday.
Council members have privately dismissed the idea of conducting another investigation, saying a South Korean-led inquiry with international participation yielded a persuasive case against Pyongyang.
That inquiry concluded a North Korean torpedo sank the Cheonan corvette on March 26, killing 46 South Korean sailors. Pyongyang has denied responsibility and said the results of the South Korean investigation were incorrect.
Sin said the 15-nation Security Council should “take measures that can lead the US and South Korea to receive the inspection group of the National Defense Commission as already proposed by the DPRK (North Korea), the victim, to help verify the ‘investigation result’ and find out the truth.”
He also asked the council to support North Korea’s request for high-level military talks with South Korea.
Pyongyang said on Sunday it was ready for direct military talks with South Korea to discuss the Cheonan sinking but only if the armistice commission overseeing the Korean War truce does not get involved.
One Western diplomat described Sin’s letter as “more moderate and more measured” than communications the council usually receives from the North Korean mission. North Korea had previously threatened to turn Seoul into a “sea of fire.”
The Security Council has been discussing a possible rebuke of North Korea, but China, Pyongyang’s only major ally, has been reluctant to allow any direct criticism that might provoke retaliation by its impoverished communist neighbor.
China, like Russia, the United States, Britain and France, is a permanent veto-wielding Security Council member and can block any action by the panel.
Western council diplomats have said that a statement on the issue agreed on Saturday by the Group of Eight rich nations club, which includes Russia, was very close to language they have been considering in New York.
The G8 “deplored” the attack on the Cheonan and blamed North Korea for an incident it said “is a challenge to peace and security in the region and beyond.”
The diplomats said they hoped the council could agree on something on the Cheonan incident in coming weeks.
