Seoul, March 24 (IANS): South Korea's unification ministry Monday said it will not lift the sanctions it imposed on North Korea May 24, 2010, until Pyongyang takes responsibility for the sinking of a South Korean warship four years ago.

South Korea's unification ministry spokesman Kim Eui-do told a routine press briefing that the government was not considering at all whether to lift the May 24 sanctions, noting the country has not taken any responsibility for the sinking of the Cheonan warship, Xinhua reported.

South Korean Navy ship Cheonan sank March 26, 2010, in waters near a western maritime border with the country in what a Seoul-led multinational investigation team said was a torpedo attack by Pyongyang.

However, North Korea has repeatedly denied its involvement in the incident, in which 46 South Korean sailors aboard were killed.

South Korea has imposed the sanctions May 24 that year, banning all inter-Korean economic and personnel exchanges, except in the joint factory park in the North Korea's border town of Kaesong.