The Chinese embassy in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea has used the term "sheer fiction" in dismissing recent media reports that said more than 100 Chinese nationals were arrested by Pyongyang for alleged espionage.

"There are individual cases of violation of laws or criminal activity among the Chinese residing in the DPRK. (But) there are no such 'spy' cases at all, and the so-called hundreds of Chinese nationals arrested is sheer fiction," the embassy said on its website on Wednesday.

The espionage report was initially made by the website Daily NK and was cited on Tuesday by some media in the Republic of Korea, including the newspaper Kookmin Ilbo.