A 308-page white paper has been published on the military’s failure to respond to events during the South Korean “Cheonan” naval vessel sinking.

The South Korean government says that the South Korean military did not respond with combat readiness towards signs that a North Korean submersible was planning to attack.

The white paper says that on the day of the attack, the Navy Second Fleet intelligence office had notified the military that a North Korean submersible and numerous mother ships had dropped out of sight from their base in the North. However, the white paper noted that the South Korean military had assumed it was a part of normal activities and did not raise the alert level nor strengthen their anti-submarine posture.

The white paper said that while the North Korean submarine infiltrated South Korean waters, fired a torpedo at the Cheonan and ran off, the South Korean military had fallen short overall in taking control of its response measures as set forth in its crisis management system.