North Korea said today that it was ready for war with the South, hours before Hillary Clinton's arrival in Seoul on the latest leg of her maiden tour as US secretary of state.
Pyongyang has ratcheted up its rhetoric in recent weeks and is thought to be preparing for a missile launch, in what many see as an attempt to grab the attention of the new US administration and put pressure on South Korea. It has hinted that it seeks a rapprochement with the US while repeatedly threatening its neighbour.
"[The South Korean president's] group of traitors should never forget that the [North] Korean People's Army is fully ready for an all-out confrontation," the North's KCNA news agency said, quoting an unnamed military official.
It added that the country could be forced to counter-strike against joint US-South Korean military drills announced yesterday, which Seoul and Washington say are defensive.
"If bellicose US forces and South Korean puppets dare wage aggression against us wrapped up in foolish delusion, we will explode our might … and ruthlessly destroy the invasionary forces," KCNA said.
Radio Pyongyang reportedly said that armed skirmishes could break out near a disputed sea border at any time.
Clinton has already warned that a missile launch would be "very unhelpful" and urged Pyongyang to halt "provocative" actions.
Relations on the peninsula deteriorated after President Lee Myung-bak took office in Seoul last year, abandoning his predecessor's "sunshine policy" and cutting aid. Pyongyang recently announced it was ditching a peace deal and all other treaties with its neighbour.
North Korea is expected to top the agenda when Clinton meets Lee tomorrow, and she is also expected to discuss it with senior officials when she arrives in China for the final leg of her tour. A six-nation aid-for-disarmament deal stalled in December last year.
Clinton is believed to be the first US secretary of state since the 60s to go to Asia on a maiden trip.
Earlier today, she sought to reassure citizens in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, of America's good intentions. She said Washington had previously neglected south-east Asia.
She appeared on a popular music TV show and toured US-funded aid projects before meeting President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
Tomorrow she will arrive in Beijing, to meet President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao, as well as the foreign minister, Yang Jiechi. Officials said talks will concentrate on climate change, but analysts expect the global economic crisis and growing tension on the Korean peninsula to be high on the agenda.
"Some believe that China on the rise is by definition an adversary," Clinton said in New York on the eve of her tour.
"To the contrary, we believe the US and China benefit from, and contribute to, each other's successes."
The two countries have already agreed to resume the military dialogue halted last year. But optimism in China is tempered by fears of US economic protectionism and concerns about the role of sensitive issues such as human rights in discussions.
"There are two possibilities: because the US needs China even more, because of the economic situation, Sino-American relations could become even stronger," said Professor Shi Yinhong, director of the Centre for American Studies at Renmin University in Beijing.
"But another possibility is that the economic situation deteriorates and there are incentives making people keener to adopt protectionist measures and for the Obama administration to become too focused on trade disputes."
He said China generally regarded current means of co-operation as focused and effective, and would want to see detailed proposals before agreeing to reshape them.
Clinton is perhaps best known in China for her forceful speech to the UN women's conference in Beijing in 1995. She has pledged to raise human rights issues while in China and is to visit a church and hold a town hall meeting.
But Professor Shen Dingli, director of the Centre for American Studies at Fudan University, said: "Now she is more mature and a better politician [than in 1995] and I think she will better handle sensitive issues like human rights.
"She will meet with Chinese leaders privately and will certainly raise it then. But I would expect her to spend far more time focusing on areas where the two countries can co-operate."