On March 26, 2010 (February 11, 2010 in the lunar calendar), the South Korean guard ship Cheonan sank in South Korean waters due to an explosion. South Korean Foreign Minister said the Cheonan incident was caused by a torpedo explosion. On the evening of March 26, 2010, the South Korean guard ship Cheonan sank due to an explosion in the waters of western South Korea. Only 58 of the 104 officers and soldiers on board survived. The official investigation results released by the joint military-civilian investigation team of the Cheonan on May 20 stated that based on various evidence, the Cheonan guard ship was sunk by a torpedo attack fired by a North Korean small submarine. A spokesman for the Korean Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland issued a statement in Pyongyang on the 21st, saying that if South Korea uses the sinking of the Cheonan guard ship as an excuse to retaliate against North Korea, North Korea will take a series of tough measures to respond. The Korean Central News Agency quoted this statement on the same day as saying that North Korea now regards the current situation as a "war situation" and will handle all issues arising in inter-Korean relations from this standpoint. Possible measures North Korea may take include a comprehensive freeze on inter-Korean relations, abolishing the non-aggression agreement signed between the two Koreas, and comprehensively halting inter-Korean cooperation. The statement also strongly condemned South Korea's recent investigation results on the sinking of the Cheonan for "fabricating facts" and deliberately linking the incident with North Korea. The statement said this was a "serious challenge and a naked declaration of war" against North Korea, leaving the situation on the Korean Peninsula "in a hair-trigger crisis."