South Korea on Wednesday rejected North Korean demands for an apology over remarks by its top general on a nuclear attack scenario, and told Pyongyang to stop raising tensions on the peninsula. The defence ministry message was Seoul's first official reaction to a series of recent hostile moves and angry rhetoric by Pyongyang.The ministry said in a statement that it sent a radio message to the North's chief representative to inter-Korean military talks, Lieutenant-General Kim Yong-Chol. Kim on Saturday had demanded an apology for remarks by South Korea's new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Kim Tae-Young made in parliament last week.
In answering a question, the general had said the South would strike the North's nuclear sites should the communist country attack it with nuclear weapons.
The North interpreted his comments as hinting at a preemptive military strike.
On Sunday the hardline communist state's official media repeated claims that Seoul was planning a preemptive attack and threatened to turn South Korea into "ashes" in response.
On Tuesday official media launched a barrage of insults against new President Lee Myung-Bak, terming him a US sycophant, a traitor and a charlatan.
In the past week the North has also expelled South Korean officials from a joint industrial complex, test-fired missiles and accused Seoul of breaching a disputed sea border.
The defence ministry message said the North misinterpreted the remarks. "Our side has sincerely upheld the non-aggression agreement between the South and the North and this position will not change in the future," Seoul's chief delegate to the military dialogue, Major-General Kwon Oh-Sung, said in the message to his counterpart. "Your intentional slander and fostering of tension do not help ensure peace and stability on the Korean peninsula, and we urge you to immediately stop such activities." The South is always ready to talk about peace and easing tensions, it added.