SEOUL: North Korea angrily rejected Tuesday a statement from world leaders meeting at the G8 summit in Canada which condemned an alleged North Korean torpedo attack that sank a South Korean warship.

"We vehemently and totally refute the declaration adopted at the G8 summit held in Canada," a foreign ministry spokesman said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

Tensions have been high on the peninsula since Seoul, citing a multinational investigation, accused its communist neighbour of sinking a South Korean warship near the disputed border in March with the loss of 46 lives.

Pyongyang has angrily denied any responsibility and threatened military retaliation if it is censured by the UN Security Council.

The North`s spokesman said the results of the investigation made public last month were "beset with so many doubts and contradictions".

He accused leaders of the Group of Eight leading industrialised nations of handling the case hastily "in a deliberate manner only to prove that they sought a sinister political purpose".

The G8 "is heading for a cemetery of history as it has been reduced to an evil group blindly conniving and defending its allies, far from taking principle and truth as a standard," the spokesman said.

In their communique in Toronto last week, G8 leaders called for "appropriate measures to be taken against those reponsible for the attack" and said they supported Seoul in its efforts to seek accountability for the sinking.

"We deplore the attack on March 26 that caused the sinking of the Republic of Korea`s naval vessel, the Cheonan, resulting in tragic loss of 46 lives," they said.
The United States hailed the G8 statement as providing "very strong momentum" towards possible UN action against Pyongyang.

South Korea and the United States are pressing the Security Council to censure the hardline communist state over the incident.

BDST:1727 HRS, June 29, 2010
NJ