North Korea accused the U.S. of trying to prevent the resumption of six-party talks on on the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue after Washington condemned the North for sinking a South Korean warship, the Yonhap news agency has said.
"As the DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) had already clarified, it has nothing to do with the case," a spokesman for the North Korean Foreign Ministry was quoted as saying.
The 1,200-ton Cheonan corvette sunk on the night of March 26 near the disputed Northern Limit Line (NLL) in the Yellow Sea after a sudden explosion that killed 46 sailors.
A team of international investigators confirmed on Thursday suspicions that the ship was destroyed by a torpedo launched from a North Korean submarine.
The White House described the act as a challenge to international peace and security and warned Pyongyang of consequences.
"The fabrication of the case and the 'results of the investigation into it' are, in the final analysis, nothing but a farce orchestrated by the group of traitors with the approval of the U.S. and under its patronage," the spokesman said, adding "this indicates that the U.S. is invariably pursuing a hostile policy towards the DPRK to isolate and stifle it."
Six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear program, involving Russia, Japan, China, the United States and the two Koreas, stalled last April when Pyongyang pulled out of the negotiations in protest against the United Nations' condemnation of its missile tests.
Yonhap quoted an unidentified senior official in the U.S. State Department as saying the U.S. was negotiating with North Korea on resuming the six-party talks in March when the Cheonan incident took place.
"We were working towards that end until North Korean sank the Cheonan. North Korea has to understand, when unwarranted damages like this occur, it has consequences," the official said.
North Korea, which has been under international sanctions over its nuclear developments, has warned the South of stern response if the South retaliated with new sanctions against Pyongyang over the alleged attack on its warship.
The two countries remain technically at war as their 1950-1953 conflict ended only in an armistice. Naval clashes between the South and the North over the disputed sea border took place in 1999, 2002 and last year.
The international community has called for Seoul and Pyongyang to show restraint and avoid escalating tensions caused by the incident in the Yellow Sea.
MOSCOW, May 22 (RIA Novosti)
