DPRK dismisses ROK's 'shelling by north' accusation

PYONGYANG - The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) said Tuesday that accusation of "shelling by north" by the Republic of Korea (ROK) was a fiction aimed at covering up unpardonable provocations, the official KCNA news agency reported.

"It is a habitual bad practice of the ROK's puppet forces to groundlessly link whatever happening in ROK with the north," said a spokesman for the Command of the Southwestern Front of the Korean People's Army (KPA).

Seoul had chronically "attributed the sinking of a ship to torpedo from the north and claimed unidentified drones are from the north and even the north is to blame for the huge paralysis of computer network," the unnamed spokesman said.

"The military gangsters of (ROK's President) Park Geun Hye would be well advised to always remember that all the service personnel of the KPA on the Southwestern Front are highly alerted to carry out a combat order to wipe out those provocateurs the moment they move," he added.

On Friday, the DPRK denied firing artillery shells toward a ROK naval ship on the previous day, rejecting Seoul's claim that the two countries exchanged fire in the disputed western sea border.

In response to the DPRK's denial, ROK said the shells were truly fired by the DPRK as its radar detected and recorded the water columns when the shells landed right beside the patrol ship.