S Korea to strike Pyongyang if N Korea attacks Seoul

South Korea will attack North Korea's capital Pyongyang in retaliation if the communist country strikes South's capital Seoul, Yonhap News Agency reported Monday, citing an official. South Korea has set up the principle of tit-for-tat retaliation in dealing with North Korea's possible aggression against Seoul and its adjacent areas, the senior military official said, according to the report. South Korea "will immediately retaliate" against North Korea "in self-defense in the event of a North Korean provocation," the official was quoted as saying. The South has surface-to-surface guided missiles and cruise missiles capable of striking key North Korean facilities, including its nuclear and missile bases, the report said. North Korea has threatened to launch a "sacred war" against South Korea in recent weeks over Seoul's defamation of the dignity of its new leader Kim Jong-un and his late father, Kim Jong-il. North Korea's frontline units are "poised for attack with their guns leveled at" South Korea's presidential office in Seoul and Incheon, the North's official Korean Central News Agency reported last month. Seoul, the city of more than 10 million people, is within range of North Korea's artillery. The North has long bristled at any outside criticism of its leader and has made similar threats against the South over the past several months, although no actual attack has occurred yet. The two Koreas are still technically at war since the 1950-1953 Korean conflict ended in a fragile cease-fire, not a peace treaty.