...

mber. The investigation showed that the submarine, which was brought up from the seabed last week, was a state-of-the-art model. Six to seven crewmen were onboard the vessel, which was equipped a with global positioning system (G-P-S) and a special coating to escape radar detection. The submarine was first detected by army guards near waters off Yosu, South Cholla Province, on the night of December 17 last year. It was sunk in crossfire the following morning while fleeing. Military authorities did not salvage the vessel until March 17 from south of Koje Island, South Kyongsang Province. On Tuesday, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (J-C-S) announced the results of its probe on the vessel. On display were over 720 articles found in the vessel, including Czech-made submachine guns, hand grenades and poison ampules. Investigators suspect six to seven agents were onboard, two or three of them guides. There were six corpses inside but it's believed one crew member may have escaped into the sea. The submarine, 12.8 meters (40.96ft) long and 2.95 meters (9.44ft) wide with a 0.62 meter (1.98ft) draft, was powered by three engines and could coast at a speed of 40 to 50 knots. It is the first North Korean craft caught in South Korean territory equipped with G-P-S, which measures the sub's exact location for accurate approach to the landing point. SOUNDBITE: (Korean) "GPS 12 is a system which can receive information such as altitude and locations from 12 different satellites at the same time." SUPER CAPTION: South Korean Defence Ministry Investigator A special coating covering the vessel made it harder to detect by radar, and unlike other semi-submarines, this one could submerge to a depth of 20 meters (64 ft). The communications equipment, ropes, Japanese and South Korean currency were all found unused. The submarine's route was traced back to departure from Nampo, North Korea, on December 12 and arrival at South Korea's southern sea through open seas around China near Shanghai. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives ​​ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/ You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/df2f0bcd236201b9b4bf8a9b56f99d4f