President Lee Myung-bak of South Korea announced that his country will no longer tolerate North Korea’s brutality against them and wants them to pay for the death of 46 South Korean sailors.

He said that Seoul will take Pyongyang to the UN Security Council, suspend inter-Korean exchanges and ban North Korean ships from passing through its waters.

“We have always tolerated North Korea’s brutality, time and again. We did so because we have always had a genuine longing for peace on the Korean peninsula,” Lee said.

“But now things are different. North Korea will pay a price corresponding to its provocative acts,” he said. “I will continue to take stern measures to hold the North accountable.”

An investigation accusing North Korea of firing torpedo against a South Korean warship that sank it last March 26 started the newest conflict between the two countries as the incident was the worst military disaster for South Korea since the 1950-53 Korean War.