SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea claimed again Tuesday the United States may attack the communist state after the war in Iraq and spark a "second Iraqi crisis."

North Korea accuses Washington of inciting a dispute over the North's suspected nuclear weapons programs to create an excuse for invasion.

"No one can vouch that the U.S. will not spark the second Iraqi crisis on the Korean Peninsula," North Korea's state-run Minju Joson newspaper said.

North Korea will "increase its national defense power on its own without the slightest vacillation no matter what others may say," the paper said.

On Monday, Pyongyang said Washington was using the war against Iraq as a test for military action against the North, labeled by President Bush part of an "axis of evil" with Iran and Iraq.

South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun dismissed the allegation as "inaccurate and groundless" and said U.S. officials repeatedly have pledged to resolve the issue peacefully.

Early this month, President Bush said he believed the standoff could be resolved diplomatically, but noted it could be resolved militarily if diplomacy fails.

The standoff flared in October when U.S. officials said Pyongyang admitted having a secret nuclear program in violation of a 1994 pact.

Washington and its allies suspended oil shipments promised under that agreement and Pyongyang retaliated by taking steps to reactivate a nuclear facility capable of producing several bombs within months and by withdrawing from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Tensions between the two Koreas are mounting over the nuclear crisis. South Korea is a strong ally of the United States, which has 37,000 troops based in the South.

South Korean Foreign Minister Yoon Young-kwan will head to Washington on Wednesday to discuss the situation.

North Korea suspended a meeting with the South this week after Seoul put its military on heightened alert, fearing the North might use the distraction of the Iraqi war to attempt provocations.

Pyongyang said South Korea's move pushed the situation to "the brink of war."

With the United States focused on Iraq, experts fear North Korea might use the opportunity to test a long-range missile or reprocess spent nuclear fuel to make atomic bombs. That would be viewed as an attempt to force Washington into direct negotiations.

The United States only wants multilateral talks with the North.