Seoul - North Korea's military Saturday threatened military conflict with South Korea, in the first public statement by the general staff of the North Korean People's Army in ten years.

The message, read by a military spokesman on North Korean television, according to the South Korean Yonhap news agency.

It said that South Korean President Lee Myung Bak and his "puppet military warhawks" would force North Korea's military forces "to take a strong military retaliatory step to wipe them out."

The statement came as North Korea accused the South Korean Navy of sending warships into North Korean waters. The two countries regularly stand off over disputed waters in the Yellow Sea.

Lee lashed out at the North Korean statement while the South Korean military called for increased levels of alertness in case of an attack from the North.

Analysts said the statement was designed to pressure South Korea to change its policies toward North Korea. Relations between the two have taken a turn for the worse since Lee's conservative government took power last year. Lee has taken a harder line with North Korea than his predecessors.

Separately, North Korea's foreign ministry said it would continue to hold nuclear weapons as long as it felt threatened by the United States. A normalization of relations with the United States would not automatically lead to denuclearization, the ministry added.

Analysts said those comments were designed to establish a new standard for US-North Korean relations before president-elect Barack Obama takes office on Tuesday. (dpa)