SEOUL, April 2, 2008 (AFP) - South Korea Wednesday rejected North Korean demands that it apologise for remarks by its top general, and told Pyongyang to stop raising tensions on the peninsula.

The defence ministry message was Seoul's first official reaction to a series of recent hostile moves and angry rhetoric by Pyongyang.

The ministry said in a statement that it sent a radio message to the North's chief representative to inter-Korean military talks, Lieutenant-General Kim Yong-Chol.

Kim on Saturday had demanded an apology for remarks by South Korea's new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Kim Tae-Young. The North interpreted his comments as hinting at a preemptive military strike.

On Sunday the hardline communist state's official media repeated claims that Seoul was planning a preemptive attack and threatened to turn South Korea into 'ashes' in response.

On Tuesday official media launched a barrage of insults against new President Lee Myung-Bak, terming him a US sycophant, a traitor and a charlatan.

In the past week the North has also expelled South Korean officials from a joint industrial complex, test-fired missiles and accused Seoul of breaching a disputed sea border.

The defence ministry said the North is deliberately misinterpreting Seoul's objectives and remarks by its officials.

'Our side has sincerely upheld the non-aggression agreement between the South and the North and this position will not change in the future,' Seoul's chief delegate to the military dialogue, Major-General Kwon Oh-Sung, said in the message.

'Your intentional slander and fostering of tension do not help ensure peace and stability on the Korean peninsula, and we urge you to immediately stop such activities.

The South is always ready to talk about peace and reducing tensions, it added.

President Lee, a conservative who took office February 25, has angered the North by adopting a tougher line on relations after a decade-long 'sunshine' engagement policy under liberal presidents.

He says he will link economic aid to the North's progress in nuclear disarmament and will raise its widely criticised human rights policy.

The vitriolic criticism of Lee was the first since he took office. Local media said it was the first named attack on a Seoul president in eight years.

Analysts speculate that Pyongyang is trying to test Lee and weaken his support before parliamentary elections next week, and before a summit with President George W. Bush starting April 18 in Washington.

The rise in tensions comes as six-nation negotiations on scrapping the North's nuclear weapons programme remain stalled.

The comments which allegedly angered the North were made by the new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in parliament last week. General Kim Tae-Young, answering a question, said the South would strike the North's nuclear sites should the communist country attack it with nuclear weapons.

Wednesday's radio message addressed only the claims by the North's chief military delegate.

But a defence ministry spokesman said it took into account all the other hostile moves including the attack on Lee, and the ministry was coordinating Seoul's response.

The spokesman said Seoul has no plans to call for military talks in the near future. 'Dialogue will be possible when the atmosphere is right for both sides,' he told Yonhap news agency.