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Carter honors perished sailors in South Korea

He laid a wreath by the wreckage of a ship N. Korea is accused of torpedoing.

SEOUL, South Korea - Defense Secretary Ash Carter honored slain South Korean sailors Friday in a visit to the wreckage of a naval vessel whose 2010 sinking brought tensions on the Korean peninsula to some of their highest levels since the 1953 armistice.

It was the first time a U.S. defense secretary visited the memorial to the Cheonan, which went down in the waters off South Korea's western coast on March 26, 2010, killing 46 people.

What remains of the 1,200-ton patrol vessel, now torn in two, is mounted on a dry dock on a South Korean naval base. Visitors can walk under the mangled hull of the ship and inspect the spot where, South Korean officials say, a torpedo launched by North Korea inflicted the fatal damage.

Carter, who visited the base after talks with officials in Seoul, laid a wreath by the ship's wreckage together with South Korean Defense Minister Han Min-koo. "This is a sad reminder that . . . peace and stability isn't automatic," Carter said. "It needs to be defended."

For South Koreans, the incident was a national tragedy.

For the United States, it was an illustration of the threat from nuclear-armed North Korea - the core of the military alliance that has anchored U.S.-South Korean ties for half a century.

North Korea has consistently denied sinking the ship.

This week's visit to Seoul gives Carter, a former senior Pentagon official who returned as defense secretary in February, a chance to acquaint foreign leaders with his vision for the U.S. military, and to provide reassurances that shrinking defense budgets and a host of foreign policy crises in Iraq, Ukraine, and elsewhere won't distract the United States from its commitments to protect allies in East Asia.

Two days before Carter arrived in Seoul, North Korea fired two surface-to-surface missiles in what appeared to be a response to an annual U.S.-South Korean military exercise.

U.S. officials say North Korea's military is the world's fourth largest, including the biggest special operations force and a potent arsenal of missiles and long-range artillery.

But the isolated nation's lack of funding and modern technology raise questions about how effective its forces would be in the event of open conflict.

Speaking at a news conference earlier in the day, the South Korean minister said there was no clear indication that North Korea had imminent plans for another nuclear or long-range ballistic missile test. Pyongyang has conducted three nuclear tests since 2006.

"However, based on past behavior from North Korea, we believe that should their strategic objective not be met, there is always the possibility that they will resort to provocations," Han said.

While both South Korean President Park Geun-hye and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un have expressed some interest in engagement, the two countries remain estranged.

The Obama administration has shunned the idea of talks with Pyongyang.