North Korea warned Saturday that it is ready for an all-out war even as it dispatched its top diplomat to Russia amid a flurry of regional diplomatic efforts to defuse tensions over the North's deadly artillery attack on South Korea.

North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Ui Chun left for Russia, the North's official Korean Central News Agency said in a one-sentence report. No details were given, but Pak accused South Korea and the United States on Friday of pursuing a policy of hostility and confrontation and reiterated that North Korea needs its nuclear program to fend them off.

"We once again feel convinced that we have made the right choice in strengthening our defenses with the nuclear deterrent," the Russian news agency Interfax quoted him as saying in an interview.

The North's National Peace Committee also claimed that the U.S. and South Korea are pushing the situation on the Korean peninsula close to all-out war.

"The army and people of the (North) are ready for both escalated war and an all-out war," the committee said in a statement carried by KCNA. "They will deal merciless retaliatory blows at the provocateurs and aggressors and blow up their citadels and bases."

The harsh rhetoric comes two days after North Korean leader Kim Jong Il met in Pyongyang with Chinese State Councilor Dai Bingguo, Beijing's top foreign policy official. The two reached consensus on the situation on the Korean peninsula during candid and in-depth talks, China's official Xinhua News Agency said, without elaborating.