Seoul: South Korea`s leader urged the military on Thursday to stay on guard against North Korea despite its recent peace overtures, saying the communist state is diversifying its threats against the South.
"North Korea has heightened the crisis on the Korean peninsula with a rocket launch and a second nuclear test after making comments about a military confrontation," President Lee Myung-Bak told a parade marking Armed Forces Day.
Lee called on the armed forces to maintain firm deterrence.
"Dialogue with North Korea should not lead to a compromise in our principles and values," he said.
"Our military must be able to deter a war without fighting one," he added in a speech, saying North Korea is "diversifying its threats" with its nuclear and missile programmes.
North Korea launched a long-range missile on April 5. In response to United Nations censure of the launch, it quit six-nation nuclear disarmament talks and staged its second atomic weapons test on May 25.
In August, after months of hostile moves towards Seoul and bitter verbal attacks, Pyongyang began making peace overtures to South Korea and to its ally the United States.
It sent a delegation to Seoul in August to pay respects to late president Kim Dae-Jung and to hold talks with Lee, and allowed the resumption of a family reunion programme for the first time in two years.
South and North Korea have remained technically at war since their 1950-53 conflict ended in an armistice without a subsequent peace treaty.
Armed Forces Day marks the day when South Korea and its allies made their first military counter-offensive into the North in 1950.
Dozens of fighter jets including KF-16s and attack helicopters such as Cobras staged performance flights, while special forces troops showed off martial arts moves and rappelling skills.
South Korea`s 655,000 troops, backed up by US forces numbering 28,500, face off against a North Korean military numbering 1.2 million across a heavily fortified frontier.
The military cancelled the customary street parade this year. The government aims to minimise public gatherings that could help spread the H1N1 flu virus.
Bureau Report
