The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Friday reiterated that the sinking of South Korean warship Cheonan "has nothing to do with us," but vowed "to continue (the) decolonization process on the Korean Peninsula through (the) Six-Party Talks", Xinhua reported.
The statement came as Sin Son Ho, DPRK's permanent representative to the United Nations, was speaking to reporters here after the UN Security Council adopted a presidential statement on the sinking of Cheonan in March, which killed 46 South Korean sailors.
"From the beginning we have made our position very clear that this incident has nothing to do with us," Sin said.
"The plot this time drove the situation of the entire Korean peninsula into a trigger point, which maybe exploded at an moment, " he said, referring the efforts to blame his country for the ship sinking.
"This reminds us once again how dangerous the current armistice mechanism is, and the need to replace it with a new peace mechanism," he said. "We will consistently make our efforts to conclude (the) peace treaty and to continue (the) decolonization process on the Korean Peninsula through the Six-Party Talks."
The Six-Party Talks, which was launched in 2003 and involves China, the DPRK, the United States, the ROK, Russia and Japan, has been stalled since December 2008. The international community called for an early resumption of such talks.
"The Security Council has debated unclear incidents," he said. "Normally this incident should have been resolved between the North and the South Korea from the very beginning without having been brought to the United Nations."
The UN Security Council on Friday adopted a presidential statement on the sinking of the South Korean corvette Cheonan in March. The presidential statement, adopted by consensus, said that the Security Council "deplores the loss of life and injuries and expresses its deep sympathy and condolences to the victims and their families and to the people and government of the ROK ( Republic of Korea)."
On March 26, the South Korean Cheonan, with 104 crew members aboard, went down off the ROK island of Baekryeong off the west coast due to an unexplained explosion, killing 46 South Korean sailors.
The presidential statement mentioned the findings of the investigation conducted by the ROK and also took note of the response from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), " which has stated that it had nothing to do with the incident."
On June 4, the ROK delivered a letter formally requesting the Security Council to take action over the sinking of its warship. On June 8, the DPRK sent a letter to the president of the Security Council to deny its involvement in the incident.