PYONGYANG, North Korea, April 17 (UPI) -- North Korea denied Saturday involvement in the sinking of a South Korean warship that killed 46 sailors.
In its first official comment on the March 26 sinking of the navy gunboat Cheonan in the Yellow Sea, North Korea said the South had falsely linked it to Pyongyang, Yonhap News Agency reported.
"As South Korea can't identify the cause of the accident, they are using the media to attribute it to us," a defense commentator at the North's official Korean Central News Agency said in a statement.
"Failing to probe the cause of the sinking of the ship, the puppet military warmongers, right-wing conservative politicians and the group of other traitors in South Korea are now foolishly seeking to link the accident with the north at any cost,"
South Korean Defense Minister Kim Tae-young said Friday he sees the ship's sinking as "a grave national security issue."
Fifty-eight crew survived when the ship sank near the sea border marking North and South Korean territorial waters.
The North does not accept the border, where the two Koreas have been embroiled in past deadly clashes.
