NK blasts accusation of GPS jamming as `smear campaign`

North Korea on Friday denied responsibility for the recent jamming of global positioning system, or GPS, signals on and above the Yellow Sea, calling South Korea`s accusation a "new farce and smear campaign" against North Korea.

In Pyongyang`s first reaction to Seoul`s accusation, a spokesman for the North`s Post and Telecommunications Ministry answered a question from the (North) Korean Central News Agency by saying South Korea "stuck to its inveterate bad habit of shifting the blame for scandals committed by its clan onto compatriots."

The spokesman denounced Seoul for spreading "fabricated allegations" that the North used Russian GPS jamming equipment and that Pyongyang stopped its jamming attacks under Chinese pressure. Citing the South`s previous accusation that the North sank a South Korean naval vessel and hacked a South Korean bank, Pyongyang denounced the Lee Myung-bak administration for its "habitual bad behavior of seeking to blame others for its own fault." The spokesman also said everything the South blames on the North proves to be "fabrications."

shcho@donga.com