North and South Korea have increased their rhetoric against one another as the South conducted more military exercises. North Korea said on Thursday, it is ready to use its nuclear deterrent in what it called, a sacred war, if it is provoked. Armed Forces Minister, Kim Yung-chun was quoted by the North Korean news agency as saying that South Korea was deliberately pushing the situation to the brink of war. South Korean President visited soldiers at a base near the border yesterday saying that the South should answer any new attack from the North with a powerful counter-attack.