North Korea Saturday denied that it was involved in sinking of a South Korean naval vessel near its disputed sea border in late March as investigators zeroed in on external blast, an indication of attack, marking the first time the North has officially denied involvement in the incident, Yonhap News Agency said.
North Korea claimed that such suspicions have been fabricated by the South Korean authorities.
"Failing to probe the cause of the sinking of the ship, the puppet military warmongers in South Korea are now foolishly seeking to link the accident with the North at any cost," a defense commentator at the North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in a statement.
"The military warmongers are getting more undisguised in their moves to link the accident with the North though it was caused by their fault," said the statement, carried by the KCNA.
It also said the South Korean administration was trying to lay the blame on North Korea in an attempt to divert the attention of the public from its own mistakes ahead of the June 2 local elections in South Korea.
"It is prompted by its ulterior intention to get rid of the worst ruling crisis caused by the 'state management failure,''' the statement said.
South Korean investigators said on Friday that an external explosion was the most likely cause behind the sinking of the 1,200-ton Cheonan patrol ship near the disputed Yellow Sea border with North Korea.
The investigators, however, said the exact cause of the incident will not be known until after further investigation.