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TOKYO: Japan has protested to North Korea over two alleged spy ships found in Japanese waters, but North Korea denied involvement, a government official said on Wednesday.

An official at Japan's diplomatic mission at the United Nations held a brief telephone conversation with a North Korean representative there to lodge a protest, said the foreign ministry official.

But the North Korean official denied any involvement, he added. "We lodged a protest in New York with a letter and a telephone call, but North Korea's response was that it has absolutely nothing to do with the case," the ministry official said.

"The response came immediately when our mission made the call," the official added. The Japanese official said there were "some other exchanges" during the telephone conversation, but he declined to disclose details.

In Japan's first potentially hostile action since World War II, warships and aircraft chased away two boats from Japanese waters under a hail of warning aerial bombs and cannon fire on March 24.

The boats, disguised as Japaneses fishing boats and bristling with antennae, were later spotted entering the North Korean port of Chongjin.

North Korea has insisted the incident was a "fiction" invented by Japanese authorities to speed up legislation to boost Japan's defence cooperation with the United States in nearby crisis.ÑAFP�
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