US plans to attack, says North Korea

NORTH KOREA has accused the United States and South Korea of planning a massive joint military attack against it, even as a Seoul envoy in Pyongyang pushed ahead with diplomatic efforts to resolve the Korean nuclear crisis.

The North also said it was prepared to answer the threat of an attack with "the unlimited use of means," in a particularly forceful dispatch from its official news agency KCNA.

The envoy of outgoing South Korean President Kim Dae-jung met with the second-highest leader of the isolated communist nation. It was a likely prelude to meeting with leader Kim Jong Il, considered the only one who can make a meaningful decision on North Korea's nuclear weapons programme.

While Seoul hoped the North's reception of its envoys signalled a new willingness for outside help in negotiating an end to the stand-off which Pyongyang has insisted is a matter between it and Washington North Korea has continually tried to drive a wedge between South Korea and the United States, its closest ally.

In its latest hostile rhetoric, North Korea said the US State Department was making "a final examination" of an attack plan that US forces could carry out only a few hours after receiving the order.

It said US forces in South Korea and the South Korean military have put together a contingency plan to invade the North and are preparing to put it into action. The plan includes attacks against North Korea's nuclear facilities, the news agency said.

North Korea has frequently accused the United States of planning a pre-emptive attack, but yesterday's report was more forcefully worded and more extensive than most recent KCNA dispatches.

"The situation on the Korean Peninsula is deteriorating so rapidly that an armed clash may break out quite contrary to the desire of the DPRK for the peaceful settlement of the nuclear issue," the report said.

DPRK stands for North Korea's officials name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

US officials have often said in recent weeks that Washington, which is currently considering a war in Iraq, has no intention of making military moves against North Korea.