Salvage team members and rescue workers put a part of a sunken naval vessel on a barge after they lifted it with a giant crane, off Baengnyeongdo island near the maritime border with North Korea, northwest of Seoul April 15, 2010.
South Korean Defence Minister Kim Tae-Young raised the possibility that a mine or torpedo may have hit the Cheonan
North Korea on Saturday denied involvement in the recent sinking of a South Korean warship that left 38 sailors confirmed dead and eight others still missing, claiming such suspicions have been fabricated by the South Korean government.
There has been growing speculation in the South that the ship had been hit by a North Korean torpedo, killing 46 sailors and raising fears it could trigger conflict on the divided peninsula.
South Korea, which has already brought some of the wreck to the surface, has said the blast that sank the vessel was caused by an external explosion.
"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," Yonhap news agency cited a defence 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 marked the first time the North has officially denied involvement in the March 26 incident.
The statement said the North considers the event a tragedy as it claimed the lives of many Koreans.
"Though the sunken large ship belongs to the South side, we have so far regarded the accident as a regretful accident that should not happen in the light of the fact that many missing persons and most of rescued members of the crew are fellow countrymen forced to live a tiresome life in the puppet army," it said.
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.
"Another sinister aim sought by the puppet regime in floating the above-said story is to justify the persistent and anachronistic policy towards the DPRK and shirk the blame for having driven the inter-Korean relations to the worst crisis," it added.
The DPRK stands for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
South Korean investigators said on Friday that an external explosion was the most likely cause behind the sinking of the 1,200-tonne Cheonan patrol ship near the disputed Yellow Sea border with North Korea.
The investigators, however, said the exact cause of the accident will not be known until after further investigation.
The battered stern of the split ship was retrieved from the ocean floor Thursday and was expected to arrive at a naval base in Pyeongtaek later Saturday for further investigation.
There has been growing speculation in the South that the ship had been hit by a North Korean torpedo, killing 46 sailors and raising fears it could trigger conflict on the divided peninsula.
The North's KCNA news agency accused the conservative government in Seoul of trying to foist blame on its reclusive neighbor to boost sagging support ahead of local elections in the South in June.
"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," the North's KCNA news agency quoted an unnamed military commentator as saying.
"Another sinister aim sought by the puppet regime in floating the ... story is to justify the persistent and anachronistic policy toward the DPRK (North Korea) and shirk the blame for having driven the inter-Korean relations to the worst crisis."
South Korea, which has already brought some of the wreck to the surface, has said the blast that sank the vessel was caused by an external explosion.
Investigators from several countries, including the United States, are trying to determine what caused the 1,200-tonne Cheonan to split in half and plunge some 45 meters (148 feet).
South Korea's defense minister said this month it may have been hit by a torpedo, immediately thrusting suspicion on the North.
Local media has pinned the blame on North Korea in the absence of any other likely reasons, though official statements have been far more circumspect.
Few expect the South, worried about hurting its own economy in the midst of recovery, to risk taking military action against the North if investigations show Pyongyang sank the ship.
It is a delicate time for President Lee Myung-bak, whose relatively high ratings in opinion polls have dipped slightly following the sinking.
His defense minister and the military have come under some criticism for being slow over their handling of the issue.
Lee wants a strong showing in the June elections to give him the political muscle he needs to push through more reforms, which have been floundering in an unruly parliament, even though it is dominated by his ruling party.
Relations between the two Koreas have been chilly since Lee took office early in 2008, ending years of generous aid which had helped prop up the North's broken economy.
South Korea raised the stern of the ship on Friday and expects to bring the rest to the surface in the next few days, as it searches for clues to one if its deadliest naval disasters since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a ceasefire.
The sinking could also complicate the resumption of stalled international talks on ending North Korea's atomic arms program in return for aid to prop up its broken economy, experts said.
North Korea on Saturday denied involvement in the sinking of a South Korean warship near their disputed border, a day after the South said an external blast was the most likely cause of the tragedy.
The statement was the first official reaction from Pyongyang after the 1,200-tonne corvette was broken in half in a mysterious blast on March 26, resulting in the loss of 46 lives, near the maritime border in the Yellow Sea.
"The war maniacs of the South's puppet military and rightwing conservative politicians are now making a foolish attempt to link the tragedy to us after having failed to find out the cause of the sinking," a statement carried by the North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.
The statement, issued in the name of a military commentator, said South Korea was seeking to use the incident to shift the blame to the North and to justify its hardline policy towards Pyongyang.
"The reason that the South's puppets are claming the North's involvement is also linked to their foolish efforts to put pressure on us, even by stirring up international opinion in favor of sanctions (against the North)," it said.
South Korean Defence Minister Kim Tae-Young has raised the possibility that a mine or torpedo may have hit the Cheonan.
On Friday, he called for patience until a probe is completed but warned that the military would take "stern" action against whoever is found to be responsible.
Investigators said Friday that an external blast was the most likely cause of the sinking but Seoul has not yet officially put the blame on North Korea.
Yoon Duk-Yong, the co-head of a state investigation team, said that the steel plate of the warship's port side was curved inward, adding the warship seemed to have received a powerful impact from the port side.
Yoon dismissed the possibility of an onboard blast or a shipwreck.
He noted that no damage was done to the ammunition storage, fuel tank or diesel engine chamber and that there were no signs of fire, with wire insulation remaining intact.
The bottom of the ship was not grated either, an indication that the ship did not run aground, he said.
Analysts said the incident would have a negative impact on six-party talks on persuading North Korea to give up its nuclear arsenal.
US Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell said Wednesday in Washington that two allies would have to agree on any next steps on restarting the talks.
The North quit the nuclear talks a year ago.
As preconditions for returning, it wants a US commitment to discuss a permanent peace treaty and the lifting of UN sanctions. Washington says it must first return to the nuclear forum and show seriousness about negotiating.
The disputed Yellow Sea border was the scene of deadly naval clashes between the North and South in 1999 and 2002 and of a firefight last November that left a North Korean patrol boat in flames.
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