The army of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) was fully ready for "an all-out confrontation" with South Korea, the official KCNA news cited a military spokesman as saying on Thursday.

The Lee Myung-bak administration of South Korea, who was escalating the confrontation with the DPRK in a bid to find a way-out of its serious inner crisis, will meet "the merciless and stern punishment by the army and people of the DPRK," a military spokesman for Korean People's Army (KPA) said.

"The retaliatory blow" from the DPRK will "fully reflect the requirements of the times and the towering resentment of the people," he added, without elaborating the actions the DPRK will take.

Tension has increased since Lee Myung-bak took office as South Korean president in Seoul a year ago with a vow to take a tougher stance on the DPRK, a position that effectively reversed 10 years of his liberal predecessors' efforts to engage the DPRK, often with generous economic aid.

The DPRK scrapped all political and military agreements with South Korea and declared to enter an "all-out confrontational posture" in January.

(Xinhua News Agency February 19, 2009)