North Korea has strongly denounced new South Korean Defense Minister Kim Tae-young for suggesting that a preemptive strike against Pyongyang could be possible before the North launches nuclear attacks.

The Rodong Sinmun, the North’s Workers' Party of Korea newspaper, said Saturday that the remarks made by Kim were seriously provocative.

During his confirmation hearing on September 18th, Kim said that South Korea has identified where North Korea holds its nuclear weapons and that the South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command has the ability to launch a preemptive strike against Pyongyang if they feel the communist state might attempt to use its nuclear weapons.

In an article titled “Intolerable Provocative Words,” the daily said the act of openly declaring a possible military attack against another party is improper and intolerable.

On inter-Korean relations, the paper said improving such ties is an urgent task that needs to be swiftly resolved, adding that the North wants South-North relations to improve and hopes to work toward reconciliation and the reunification of the two Koreas.