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The sinking of the Navy warship Cheonan was handed over to the United Nations on June 5. Two and a half months after the ship went down, the incident stands at the center of international politics.

South Korea and other nations have moved frantically to address the crisis since the disaster began. And in the aftermath, it has been obvious that the regime of North Korea’s Kim Jong-il had predicted and sufficiently prepared for the responses of the individual countries and the international community when it made up its mind to go ahead with the attack on the Cheonan.

It must have been confident about its judgment before it committed the attack. What in the last 10 weeks might have surprised Kim Jong-il?