Pyongyang really, really, really, really insists they didn't sink the Ch'ŏnan

And to prove it, they're offering a sample of one of their torpedoes to show it isn't like the one that sunk the South Korean vessel, killing four dozen people.

From Reuters:

North Korea has denied it was responsible for the attack, and state news agency KCNA published on Tuesday what it said was "the first installment of a statement disclosing the truth behind the Cheonan case."

It said the North was willing to provide a steel alloy sample of one of its torpedoes to Washington and Seoul, adding that "aluminum alloy fragments prove themselves that the torpedo was not from the north."

It would be an intriguing development if it turned out that a type of material revealed in the South Korean government investigation wasn't even used in North Korean-made torpedoes. That would mean nothing, though, as a major attack like that could easily (and preferably) have been done with a foreign-made torpedo. This "announcement," though, is intended to sow more seeds of doubt and resentment by conspiracy theorists in the South who doubt just about anything that comes from the Lee government.

I was unable to find this news item in the KCNA reports, though it may appear in the November 2 or November 3 editions; November 1 is their latest.

I did find out, however, that the Pyongyang Mechanical Pencil Factory has developed a new type of mechanical pencil, a product of North Korea's push toward the much-touted CNC technology.