NKorea threatens to turn SKorea into 'debris'

North Korea, angry at a leaflet campaign by Seoul groups urging the overthrow of its leader, accused South Korea on Tuesday of planning a pre-emptive strike and threatened to reduce it to "debris" in retaliation.

The North's military said it would use a "more powerful and advanced" strike of its own if South Korea launched a pre-emptive strike.

"The puppet authorities (Seoul) had better bear in mind that the advanced pre-emptive strike of our own style will reduce everything... to debris, not just setting them on fire," it said in a statement carried by the state news agency, KCNA.

"It will turn out to be a just war... to build an independent reunified state on it."

The North's military described its pre-emptive capability as "beyond imagination, relying on striking means more powerful than a nuclear weapon".

The 1.1 million-strong military has for years deployed hundreds of conventional missiles targeting the South. More