With tensions surging on the Korean peninsula, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un talked of “all-out war” as he toured a frontline unit that shelled the South in 2010, state media said Friday.

Visiting two islands close to the disputed maritime border with South Korea on Thursday, Kim said the North’s military was “fully ready to fight a Korean style all-out war,” the Korean Central News Agency said.

The tour coincided with an outpouring of vitriol from Pyongyang over U.N. sanctions imposed for its nuclear test last month, with the North threatening pre-emptive nuclear strikes on the U.S. and its allies, and vowing to rip up peace pacts with South Korea.

Speaking to troops stationed on the islands, Kim said the slightest provocation would result in his immediate order for a “great advance” along the entire frontline with the South.

On Mudo Island he inspected artillery units that shelled the nearby South Korean island of Yeonpyeongdo in November 2010, killing four people and triggering an exchange of fire that sparked fears of a full-blown conflict.

State television showed Kim inspecting the craters left by South artillery shells on the island in what he described as the “most gratifying” battle since the end of the Korean war in 1953.

The television footage showed him with binoculars looking across at Yeonpyeong island and apparently discussing target selection with the artillery officers.

“He reconfirmed in detail reinforced fire power strike means and targets of the enemy deployed on five islets,” including Yeonpyeong island and “defined the order of precision strikes” on those targets, KCNA said. (AFP)