Defiant N Korea threatens 'merciless punishment'

North Korea threatened to "mercilessly punish" the United States Sunday if its withdrawal from a key anti-nuclear pact was met with sanctions and called on the Korean people to unite against their common enemy.

After sparking outrage by withdrawing from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Friday and then threatening to restart missile tests, the North showed no sign of trying to ease tensions over the crisis.

Instead, in a series of editorials in the ruling communist party's Rodong Sinmun newspaper, Pyongyang sought to heap the blame for the current standoff entirely on the United States, which it claimed was planning an invasion.

"If the US and its followers come to challenge the DPRK (North Korea) over its withdrawal from the NPT with another pressure and sanctions, the DPRK will counter them with a stronger self-defensive measure," one editorial warned.

"It is the counteraction of the Korean army and people to respond to a pressure with a telling blow and to 'chastisement' with merciless punishment."

A second commentary also accused the United States of snubbing North Korean calls for a non-aggression pact in recent weeks, even though Washington has consistently said it has no plans to attack the hardline Stalinist state.

"The US reacted to the DPRK's sincere proposal for concluding a non-aggression treaty between the DPRK and the US and its patient efforts for negotiations with the threat of 'blockade' and 'military punishment'," it said.

"If the US evades its responsibility and recklessly challenges the DPRK, the army and people of the DPRK will never miss the chance but certainly make them pay for the blood and turn the stronghold of the enemy into a sea of fire."

In a separate appeal to South Koreans, the enigmatic regime's mouthpiece called for a united battle against the United States.

"All political parties, organizations, classes and social strata in the north and the south of Korea should wage a struggle to frustrate the Yankees' moves to invade the DPRK.

"If a war breaks out, all the Koreans will suffer from the disaster. All the Koreans should be mindful that only anti-US struggle would guarantee their life.

"The security of the nation and its independent reunification are unthinkable without the struggle against aggression and war. Clear is that the target of the Korean people's struggle is the US imperialists and their policy to invade the DPRK."

Reuters adds: With the world gripped by fear of a nuclear-armed North Korea, a US envoy flies into Seoul Sunday to try to calm the crisis that Japan said might end if Pyongyang could be convinced it had nothing to gain.

Communist North Korea, suspected by the United States of making nuclear bombs, Saturday became the first country to pull out of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), triggering alarm in neighboring countries and worldwide condemnation.