DPRK rejects S Korean blame over warship sinking

South Korean naval ship, the Cheonan, sinks near South Korea's Baeknyeong Island, close to DPRK, in the western waters on Saturday, March 27, 2010. (Xinhua/Reuters File Photo)

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) has rejected South Korea's claim that Pyongyang was responsible for warship Cheonan's sinking, saying it will send a verification team to Seoul.

The DPRK has rejected the claim that its torpedo released by a submarine sank the South Korean warship in March. The country's National Defense Commission said it will dispatch inspectors to South Korea to verify the claim announced by a multinational team of investigators.

The investigators concluded early Thursday that the South Korean navy warship was torpedoed by a DPRK submarine and the torpedo was manufactured in the DPRK.

The group of civilian and military experts said the 1,200-ton warship Cheonan went sunk as a result of an "external underwater explosion" caused by a torpedo fired by a DPRK submarine, resulting in one of the worst peacetime casualties in the country's naval history.

"The evidence points overwhelmingly to the conclusion that the torpedo was fired by a North Korean (DPRK) submarine. There is no other plausible explanation," they said in a statement.

The statement said the joint civilian-military investigation group (JIG) assessed that "a strong underwater explosion generated by the detonation of a homing torpedo below and to the left of the gas turbine room" caused Cheonan to split apart and sink.


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