I told him that if the United States attacks North Korea, I cannot send one single member of South Korea's 650,000 armed forces into battle Former South Korean President Kim Young-sam

Kim Young-sam, South Korean president from 1993 to 1998, recalled on Friday that he had stood against US plans to attack a controversial nuclear facility in the North in 1994.

Mr Kim, speaking at a news conference, said he had argued at length with his US counterpart, Bill Clinton, over the proposed bombardment.

Mr Kim warned, however, that Seoul and Washington must stand firm against the latest nuclear stand-off, arguing that the Communist North could not be trusted.

South Korea and the US are currently engaged in feverish diplomacy aimed at resolving the crisis, which has seen the North restart its Yongbyon reactor.

1994 attack plans

The same reactor was to be the target of the 1994 attack, Mr Kim said.

Mr Clinton apparently phoned Mr Kim to tell him that the US was moving one aircraft carrier and seven cruisers and destroyers up the east coast of the North.

We drew up plans to attack North Korea and to destroy their reactors - we told them we would attack unless they ended their nuclear programme Bill Clinton

"Clinton told me that he would launch an immediate bombardment on the Yongbyon area. Clinton was very determined about it, but I argued to him that such an attack should never take place," said Mr Kim.

"So there was quite an argument between him and me. Sometimes the phone conversations lasted more than 40 minutes," he said.

Mr Clinton first revealed the 1994 plan to attack North Korea last month, but said nothing of the alleged dispute with the South.

Mr Kim said that a US attack would have led to a tremendous loss of life, and would have turned Seoul into a "sea of fire".

"Finally I told him that if the United States attacks North Korea, I cannot send one single member of South Korea's 650,000 armed forces into battle."

Diplomatic solution

In the end, former US President Jimmy Carter stepped in to mediate, brokering the only ever agreement signed between America and North Korea, under which Pyongyang agreed to halt its nuclear activities.

It was the North's apparent breaking of the 1994 Agreed Framework that led to the current stand-off.

This time, Washington says that it has no intentions to respond militarily.

Mr Kim warned that this was unlikely to be the last time that the impoverished North engaged in nuclear brinkmanship in an apparent attempt to secure more US aid.