North Korea marked Kim Jong-il's 67th birthday by calling for a fight against what it called “hostile South Korean forces.”

In a speech marking the North Korean leader's birthday Monday carried by the North's official Korean Central News Agency, Kim Yong-nam, the president of the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly, suggested the North take an "iron hammer" to anti-unification forces in the South.

Kim Yong-nam said the South Korean government is against unification, hostile and is effectively destroying inter-Korean ties which, he says, could eventually bring about a nuclear confrontation.

In a similar briefing on Kim's birthday last year, Pyongyang did not only refrain from criticizing Seoul, but instead stressed the implementation of joint inter-Korean agreements.

The parliamentary leader refrained from addressing the United States in this year’s speech and vowed to advance ties with countries that approach North Korea with a spirit of self-reliance, peace and goodwill.