North Korea threatened a nuclear "sacred war" on Thursday and South Korea vowed a "merciless counterattack" if it was attacked again as both sides raised the rhetoric on a day of more military exercises in the South. South Korea's land and sea exercises prompted North Korea, which has threatened to reduce the South to ashes on many occasions, to denounce its richer neighbour as a warmonger.
"To counter the enemy's intentional drive to push the situation to the brink of war, our revolutionary forces are making preparations to begin a sacred war at any moment necessary based on nuclear deterrent," North Korea's KCNA news agency quoted Minister of Armed Forces Kim Yong-chun as saying. North Korea has wielded its nuclear capability threat before but analysts say it has no way to launch a nuclear device.
Tension reached a peak last month when North Korea shelled a southern island, Yeonpyeong, killing four people, in response to a South Korean live-fire drill in what the North said were its waters. The North has since made a conciliatory gesture, offering to re-admit UN nuclear inspectors worried about its nuclear weapons programme.
"We've seen North Korea flip-flop from threatening the South with nuclear war before the military exercises, then a day later ignore that the exercises took place, launch a peace initiative, and now, just days later, once again threaten with nuclear war," said Mark Hibbs of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
"The flip-flopping is part of North Korea's tactic to keep everyone guessing and off balance." South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said on a tour of a forward army base overlooking North Korea that the South would not relax its readiness to counter any further aggression.
"We had believed patience would ensure peace on this land, but that was not the case," Lee, criticised for a perceived weak earlier response to North Korean attacks, told troops. South Korea held a big land drill in the Pocheon region between Seoul and the heavily armed demilitarised zone (DMZ) separating the two Koreas. It also continued naval live-fire exercises 100 km (60 miles) south of the maritime border.
The drill involved a larger scale of firepower and personnel than usual for an exercise at the army training ground, a further indication that Lee wants to show the public his government can stand up to the North. A large contingent of mechanised units operating tanks, three dozen self-propelled artillery, fighter jets and multiple rocket launchers took part in the live-fire drill just miles from the border. It lasted just less than an hour. A British Foreign Office spokesman defended South Korea's decision to hold the exercises.
"South Korea has every right to conduct defensive military exercises in its territory," he said. "We urge North Korea to cease its aggressive rhetoric and refrain from provocative actions. North Korea must accept that engagement with the international community is better than isolation."
Lee has replaced his top defence officials with more hawkish military men, a response to criticism of his response to hostile acts, including an attack on a ship in March blamed on the North and the shelling of Yeonpyeong. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu, when asked about the South Korean drills, repeated China's call for a resumption of the so-called six-party talks.