N. Korea warns of War at any moment

North Korea's Defense Chief reiterated a warning Sunday that tensions on the divided Korean Peninsula may lead to a war, the latest harsh rhetoric amid a flurry of diplomatic efforts to ease tensions and revive stalled talks on the North's nuclear programs. Tensions still linger over the peninsula over the sinking of a South Korean warship blamed on the North and the North's shelling of a South Korean border island, South Korea's News Agency (Yonhap) reported. South Korea has repeatedly called for the North to take responsible steps over its deadly attacks last year that killed a total of 50 South Koreans, but the North has continued to deny its responsibility over the sinking of the South Korean warship. On Sunday, North Korea's Defense Chief Kim Yong-chun accused Seoul and Washington of having staged "madcap maneuvers for mounting a surprisingly preemptive strike" on the North with various nuclear attack means. "If the US imperialists and the South Korean group of traitors finally ignite a war against the (North), its revolutionary armed forces will wipe out the aggressors at one blow," he said at a national meeting in Pyongyang on the eve of the 79th founding anniversary of the Korean People's Army. Top Chinese nuclear envoy Wu Dawei is scheduled to visit Seoul this week for talks with his South Korean counterpart, Seoul's Foreign Ministry said, without giving further details. Former US President Jimmy Carter plans to visit Pyongyang this week for talks expected to focus on North Korea's denuclearization, a peace treaty and humanitarian food aid to the impoverished communist nation.