N. Korea forces at top combat posture

SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea's military warned yesterday that its artillery and rocket forces are at their highest-level combat posture in the latest in a string of bellicose threats aimed at South Korea and the United States.

The announcement came as South Koreans marked the third anniversary of the sinking of a warship in which 46 South Korean sailors died. Seoul says the ship was hit by a North Korean torpedo, while the North denies involvement.

Seoul's Defense Ministry said yesterday it hasn't seen any suspicious North Korean military activity and officials are analyzing the North's warning. A direct North Korean attack is extremely unlikely, the analysts say, especially during joint U.S.-South Korean military drills that end April 30, though there's some worry about a provocation after the training wraps up.

The rival Koreas have had several bloody naval skirmishes in disputed Yellow Sea waters since 1999. In November 2010, a North Korean artillery strike on a South Korean island killed two marines and two civilians.

North Korea, angry over routine U.S.-South Korean drills and recent UN sanctions punishing it for its Feb. 12 nuclear test, has vowed to launch a nuclear strike against the United States and repeated its nearly two-decade-old threat to reduce Seoul to a "sea of fire."

Pentagon press secretary George Little said the threat would only further isolate North Korea. The "bellicose rhetoric and threats follow a well-worn pattern designed to raise tensions and intimidate others," Little said.

The North's recent threats are seen partly as efforts to strengthen internal loyalty to young leader Kim Jong Un and affirm his military credentials.

At a ceremony on the anniversary of the warship sinking, new President Park Geun-hye said of the North: "Focusing its national strength on the development of nuclear weapons while its people are suffering starvation . . . will only bring international isolation to themselves."