South Korean Defence Minister Lee Jun on Tuesday called on the nation's military to maintain readiness for a possible confrontation with North Korea amid mounting tension over the Stalinist state's nuclear ambitions.

"We must keep in mind that we are at a transitional stage where South and North Korea are still at military confrontation amid brisk exchanges for reconciliation and cooperation," Lee said in a New Year message to the South Korean people.

"Whatever changes take place in inter-Korean relations, there will be no changes to the mission (the armed forces) have to perform," he added.

In testimony to parliament on Monday, Lee said Seoul was concerned about possible North Korean military provocation amid the escalating nuclear standoff with the United States.

He also addressed antiAmerican sentiment in South Korea and widespread calls for the pullout of US troops from the Korean peninsula.

The defence minister said he was aware that anti-US protests had found an echo among some officials and pundits in the United States who had urged Washington to withdraw US forces from South Korea if they were no longer welcome there.

"It is true that some US officials and citizens have suggested US troops should pull out of South Korea if that is what South Koreans want," Lee said.

Reuters adds: UN nuclear inspectors left North Korea Tuesday on the orders of the communist state as the United States tried to orchestrate a concerted diplomatic push to persuade it to halt its nuclear programs.

The inspectors, expelled by the North after it started reviving a mothballed complex capable of producing plutonium for nuclear weapons, stopped in China on their way to International Atomic Energy Authority (IAEA) headquarters in Vienna.

The departure of the inspectors, who had been monitoring the complex under a deal that ended a 1994 nuclear crisis, ends all hope of independent monitoring of the North's nuclear programs.