NORTH KOREA said yesterday a submarine found stranded off South Korea last week had drifted there after engine failure and it demanded the vessel and crew back, including the bodies of those killed.
It was Pyongyang's first direct comment on a drama that started on Wednesday when an estimated 26 North Koreans came ashore on an east coast beach near the city of Kangnung.
Southern forces killed nine intruders, found the bodies of 11 believed killed by their own colleagues, captured one North Korean alive, and lost three of their men.
One civilian was also killed accidentally by southern forces as they continued hunting five North Koreans thought still to be at large.
South Korea dismissed Pyogyang's explanation and maintained the intrusion was a military provocation.
"The North Korean explanation about the vessel is nonsense. It is not worthy of consideration," a defence ministry spokesman told a news conference. "It is nothing but North Korea's habitual deceitful policy to defuse criticism. The intrusion was a carefully planned infiltration."
A statement by Pyongyang's Ministry of the People's Armed Forces carried by the Korea Central News Agency said the vessel was on a routine training mission when it developed engine trouble - and ended up on rocks off Kangnung.
The statement said the submarine carried no heavy weapons and there were only small arms on board.
However, the South Korean Joint Chief of Staff said a rocket launcher had been found on board.
North and South Korea have been technically at war since an armistice ended the 1950-1953 Korean conflict and sealed the partition of the peninsula.