PYONGYANG, March 25-- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) said Wednesday the United States plotted the Cheonan sinking in March 2010 and using the incident to step up hostility against Pyongyang.

"The U.S. is the arch criminal that engineered the case by instigating the South Korean puppet forces," said a statement issued by the Panmunjom mission of the Korean People's Army and carried by the official news agency KCNA on Wednesday, one day ahead of the 5th anniversary of the sinking of the corvette.

"It (The Cheonan sinking) was orchestrated by the U.S. out of its sinister intention to hold control of South Korea and Japan, use them as a shock brigade in realizing its ambition for world domination and intensify the moves to isolate and stifle the DPRK after securing justifications for arms buildup in the region," the statement said.

The statement also slammed Washington for standing in the way of the probe into the truth behind the incident, saying that the United States was "a backstage wire-puller" who instigated Seoul to fabricate the story about the torpedo attack by the north.

The statement urged the United States to admit its scheme and offer an apology to the public.

On March 26, 2010, South Korea's Cheonan warship sank off the country's west coast, killing 46 people. Seoul said that the corvette was sunk by torpedoes fired by the DPRK, a charge repeatedly denied by Pyongyang.

Not long after the incident, the South Korean government halted inter-Korean trade and aid projects and banned South Koreans' visits to the north.