A recent survey has found that 8 out of 10 South Koreans believe that North Korea was behind the sinking of the Cheonan naval vessel in March last year.

Among the 80 percent, the respondents said they believed the sinking was due to a provocation by the North immediately after they heard of the disaster.

In addition, 64-percent of all respondents said that North Korea should first make an official apology before the stalled six-party denuclearization talks and inter-Korean talks can resume.

The survey was conducted by Hankook Research, which was commissioned by the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism for the one-year anniversary of the Cheonan incident. It was conducted on one-thousand male and female adults over a telephone automated response service. It has a margin of error of plus or minus three-point-one percentage points with a confidence level of 95 percent.