North Korea kept up its tough rhetoric against the United States and South Korea on Saturday, accusing Washington of preparing for a war on the Korean peninsula. It also continued to target South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, calling him a traitor, a day after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned that ties with Pyongyang could not improve if it continued insulting South Korea.
North Korea's official media, however, was silent on Clinton's remarks over the leadership issue in Pyongyang and the possibility of a crisis over who may succeed leader Kim Jong-il, 67, who is widely believed to have suffered a stroke last August.
"If the US war-thirsty forces are allowed to continue frantically stepping up the moves for another Korean war ... the situation on the Korean Peninsula will reach an unpredictable phase and the US will be held wholly accountable for the ensuing consequences," the North's official Rodong Sinmun newspaper said.