Article Posted on : - Dec 24, 2010

North Korea's minister of the people's armed forces Kim Young-Chun. A file photo

SEOUL (AFP): North Korea on Thursday said it was ready for a "sacred war" using its nuclear weapons as the South held a live-fire drill in a show of strength a month after Pyongyang's deadly attack on a border island.

Armed forces minister Kim Young-Chun also repeated Pyongyang's charges that the South's exercises near the border were in preparation for a new Korean war, the communist state's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.

"The revolutionary armed forces of the DPRK (North Korea) are getting fully prepared to launch a sacred war of justice of Korean style based on the nuclear deterrent at anytime necessary to cope with the enemies' actions deliberately pushing the situation to the brink of a war," Kim was quoted as saying.

The threat came after South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak, visiting a frontline army unit elsewhere, warned of severe retaliation in the event of a new attack by the North.

The South's military was heavily criticised for a perceived feeble response to last month's bombardment which killed four people including civilians.

It has been stressing its battle-readiness and determination to hit back harder next time, using air power.

"We should make a stronger and bigger counter-strike so they cannot provoke us again," Lee was quoted by Yonhap news agency as saying.

"We've endured for long enough. We thought we could maintain peace on this land if we endured, but that was not the case," Lee said. "Now we need to strongly retaliate to maintain peace, deter provocations and prevent war."

The exercise at the Pocheon range, 30 kilometres south of the tense land border with North Korea, lasted about 40 minutes.

Some 800 troops took part along with 30 tanks, 11 armoured personnel carriers, six jets, 36 artillery pieces, three multiple long-range rockets, seven helicopters and other equipment.

The Navy is also conducting a four-day exercise off the east coast, which began Wednesday.

Pyongyang's official news agency said the South was committing "grave military provocation" by staging the drill.

KCNA said the warning came during a meeting in Pyongyang marking the 19th anniversary of leader Kim Jong-Il gaining supreme command of the Korean People's Army.

The South says its drills are defensive. But tensions have been high on the peninsula since the North shelled Yeonpyeong Island near the contested western sea border on November 23.