N Korea nuclear crisis taken to new level

Stepping up its rhetoric amid growing US pressure against the country, North Korea says it could use nuclear weapons “as a merciless offensive” if provoked.

“Our nuclear deterrent will be a strong defensive means … as well as a merciless offensive means to deal a just retaliatory strike to those who touch the country’s dignity and sovereignty even a bit,” the official Korean Central News Agency quoted Pyongyang’s state-run Minju Joson newspaper as saying.

The tough talk came as the US has been pushing for tougher measures against North Korea in recent weeks in response to the communist nation carrying out nuclear and short-range missile tests.

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US President Barack Obama has said that “North Korea’s actions over the last couple of months have been extraordinarily provocative”, adding that Washington was not “intending to continue a policy of rewarding provocation”.

On Sunday, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) briefed President Lee Myung-Bak on plans for a counter-attack on North Korea should Pyongyang fire missiles at ships controlled by the South.

“North Korea’s firing of ground-to-ship missiles at our navy ships would prompt counter-attacks simultaneously from surface, air and sea,” JCS chairman Kim Tae-Young said.