North Korean Media Says U.S. Attack Would Prompt Nuclear War

July 3 (Bloomberg) -- North Korea's state-run media said today the country's army is ready to answer any preemptive U.S. military attack against a missile site with a ``relentless annihilating strike and a nuclear war.''

The Korean Central News Agency, citing an unidentified Rodong Sinmun newspaper ``analyst,'' highlighted what it described as aggressive U.S. intentions by repeating accusations made last week that the U.S. military is sending spy planes into its airspace.

The analyst said ``the fond talk of the U.S. about `dialogue' and `peace' is a false advertisement to mislead public opinion at home and abroad'' and he accused the U.S. government of a ``criminal attempt to start a nuclear war on the Korean peninsula at any cost,'' according to the news agency's own English translation.

North Korea's threat of retaliation comes as the U.S. says the secretive, nuclear-armed communist country is preparing to test a Taepodong-2 missile capable of reaching American shores. The U.S., China and other countries have asked the North Korean government not to carry out such a test, which President George W. Bush said last week would be ``provocative.''

In Washington, White House spokesman Tony Snow today cautioned dictator Kim Jong Il after reading the North Korean media account.

``We're encouraging North Korea not to launch a missile and return to the six-party talks,'' he said. Snow declined to comment further.

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said after meeting Bush last week in Washington that the U.S. and its allies ``would apply various pressures'' should North Korea launch its missile. Koizumi declined to specify what steps might be taken.

Security Pledge

The U.S., China, South Korea, Japan and Russia agreed in September to provide North Korea with security guarantees, food and energy in return for ending a nuclear arms program that may have built as many as 13 warheads.

North Korea has refused to return to the negotiations until the U.S. removes sanctions it imposed over allegations of money laundering and counterfeiting by North Korean companies.

U.S. behavior on the Korean peninsula ``attests to the validity of the option of the DPRK in building up a strong war deterrent,'' the analyst said, according to the Korean news agency. DPRK are the initials for the country's formal name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

North Korea, with a population of about 23 million, is economically and politically isolated from much of the world. It ranks 193rd on a list of countries measured by gross domestic product per capita -- tied with Haiti, according to U.S. government figures. Haiti is the Western Hemisphere's poorest nation.