"The US persistent hostile policy toward the DPRK (North Korea) will only prompt the DPRK to further consolidate the single-minded unity of its revolutionary ranks and bolster its self-defensive nuclear deterrent," said Kim Yong-Chun, chief of the General Staff of the Korean People's Army.

In a speech at a meeting attended by senior party, government and military officials in Pyongyang, Kim urged North Koreans to keep themselves "ready to go into action" to frustrate any US moves for a new war.

North Korean soldiers and civilians will "turn out as one in a just war and mercilessly wipe out the aggressors" if the United States launches a war on the peninsula, he said.

North Korea has declared itself a nuclear power and insisted nuclear crisis talks should be turned into a disarmament forum.

The North's declaration on March 31 came amid a flurry of diplomacy to get Pyongyang back to six-party talks on ending a standoff over its nuclear weapons drive.

Three rounds of talks bringing together the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States have been held since the standoff erupted in 2002 when the United States accused the North of operating a secret uranium-enrichment program.

But North Korea boycotted the last round of nuclear talks scheduled for Beijing in September and said in February that it had made nuclear weapons.

Washington believes that North Korea may have two crude nuclear devices. Experts say it may have reprocessed enough plutonium for half a dozen more.

The JoongAng Ilbo newspaper in Seoul reported Friday that a confidential North Korean military manual provided a rare insight into the siege mentality gripping North Korea and leader Kim Jong-Il's fears for his own security.

The manual written for general level officers and above says the United States is mounting a covert campaign to bribe North Korean officers to turn against their leader.

A similar plan worked in Iraq where Saddam Hussein's troops refused to fight the US invaders, according to the document, published in 2004.

"After succeeding in its operation of bribery in Iraq, the United States has been trying to use the same tactic toward us. The main targets of such bribery tactics are our military officers," the document said.

It also claimed the United States considers the removal of North Korea's highest leadership as the quickest way to destroy the isolated country.

Experts in Seoul said the military manual confirmed the siege mentality in North Korea.

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