North Korea on Friday placed blame for the death of a South Korean fisheries official last month on Seoul's "improper control."

The North's state media Korean Central News Agency(KCNA) said that the recent incident in the waters of the West Sea was the result of improper control of a citizen by the South in a sensitive hotspot at a time when tensions are high due to the coronavirus sweeping the whole of South Korea. 

The report said therefore, the blame for the incident first rests with the South. 

The KCNA said North Korea also tried its best to retrieve the body of the official to "no avail," expressing its regret over the lack of any results in its efforts and pledging to continue to take necessary steps in that regard. 

It added that North Korea does not want to see the repetition of any unpleasant precedents in which accidental incidents lead inter-Korean relations to a catastrophe.

But it said that conservative forces in the South, such as the main opposition People Power Party, are using the incident to slander and defame the North. 

The KCNA said that Seoul participated in the unsavory acts of insulting the North's good faith, aiming to maximize distrust, and slandering against the North, which has gone beyond tolerance.