By Jon Herskovitz
SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea said on Thursday it was readyto give up dialogue and attack the South, ignoring a call fromits wealthy neighbour's new president to calm down and get backto serious talks.
In the past week, the North has warned it could reduce itsneighbour to ashes and hurled insults at President LeeMyung-bak, who took office in February with a pledge to end thefree flow of aid unless Pyongyang's communist leaders behaved.
And late on Thursday, it accused the South of raisingtensions by sending three warships into its waters. SouthKorea's Defence Ministry denied the charge.
Earlier, Pyongyang sent a two-sentence letter from itsmilitary to the South warning of a strike, which was followedby a separate report in its KCNA news agency that the peninsulawas on the brink of war.
"South Korea's military should clearly be aware that theposition of our revolutionary military is to counter anyattempt to carry out a pre-emptive attack with an advancepre-emptive attack," KCNA said.
"(The South) can never be cleared of the responsibility forsuspended dialogue and contact between North and South and forthe implementation of a travel ban," it added.
North Korea's military has threatened pre-emptive attacksfor years in response to annual, joint U.S.-South Koreanmilitary drills it said were pushing the peninsula into war.
Its actions over the past week, including a missile launchand expelling South Korean officials from a joint factory parknorth of heavily armed the border, are the most aggressiveagainst the South in a decade.
But there is no sign so far that the North has gone anyfurther than furious rhetoric in what many analysts see as anattempt to pressure South Korea and its U.S. ally into makingconcessions to appease it.
A South Korean working at the Kaesong industrial park saidby telephone: "There has been no change in operations here."
WAR OF WORDS
Lee has said he will end the free flow of aid North Koreahas become used to over the past decade unless it mends itsways and, in particular, makes progress on nuclear disarmament.
"We propose that the two sides engage in sincere dialogue,and in order to do so, we believe the North has to move awayfrom its previous ways and actions," the presidential officequoted Lee as telling military chiefs.
South Korean government officials saw the latest statementas a repetition of threats North Korea made a few days ago,adding there was no scheduled dialogue between the two to besuspended.
KCNA said three South Korean warships entered North Koreanterritorial waters on Thursday morning in "a brigandish act todefend the illegal 'northern limit line'".
The nautical border known as the "Northern Limit Line" wasset unilaterally by U.N.-led forces at the end of the 1950-53Korean War and has been recognised since by the South'smilitary as the de facto border.
North Korea declared the line in the Yellow Sea invalid in1999. Dozens of sailors from both Koreas were killed in clashesacross the line in 1999 and 2002.
The flare-up between the two nations technically still atwar, has had little impact in the South. Its financial markets,long used to fiery exchanges from across the Cold War's lastfrontier, have mostly ignored the latest hostility.
The North also threatened to step away from its obligationsin a deal with regional powers, including the United States,aimed at ending its atomic arms ambitions.
The United States, which has some 28,000 troops in SouthKorea, will be the first country Lee visits since takingoffice. Lee, who has made stronger ties with Washington apriority, flies there later this month.
"This is the North Korean way to put pressure on the LeeMyung-bak government to make its policy shift," said ParkYoung-ho, of the Korea Institute for National Unification.
North Korea has created its "own version of linkage" whereit says inter-Korean troubles are compounded by Seoul'salliance to Washington, said Park, an expert on the North.
(Additional reporting by Lee Jiyeon, Yoo Choonsik and RheeSo-eui; Editing by Jonathan Thatcher and Alex Richardson)
