Any preventive Seoul attack to be regarded as war declaration-DPRK.

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24/1 Tass 24

SEOUL, January 24 (Itar-Tass) - North Korea issued a warning that any
pre-emptive strike by South Korea would be regarded as a declaration of
war.
A statement by the North Korea military leadership, circulated on
Sunday by the KCNA news agency, notes that North Korea "will quickly take
necessary and resolute military actions" in response to any attempts by
South Korea to violate sovereignty and dignity of the North as well as
will destroy the main military facilities.
This demarche by Pyongyang was a reply to a statement, made by Seoul
on January 20, that given an imminent nuclear attack by North Korea, a
possibility of making a pre-emptive strike will be the only means of
protection for South Korea.
"We shall be duty-bound to make an immediate strike (on North Korea)
if we find out an overt intention to attack us with nuclear weapons",
South Korean Defence Minister Kim Tae-young told a local forum on military
problems.
If North Korea makes a nuclear attack, in this case, in the opinion of
the South Korean military leadership, "it will be too late and damage will
be too great. It is necessary for us to cope with this, and there should
not be any changes in this principle".
Kim Tae-young, chairman of the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff at
the time, had already issued a similar statement in 2008, when North Korea
had made test launchings of short-range missiles on its western coast.
Then showing its rile with Seoul's response, North Korea threatened with
delivering "more powerful strikes".
The present pronouncements by the South Korea defence minister sounded
after Pyongyang's recent threats to unleash "a sacred war" against South
Korea.
The reason for this were unconfirmed reports by some local mass media
that the South Korean government updated "the Operation Plan 5029",
determining an order of actions by South Korean and American armed forces
in case of emergency situations in the north of the Korean Peninsula.
They included a sudden death of Kim Jong-Il, a military coup, an
uprising of population and other scenarios which may result in a collapse
of the present regime.
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