North Korea New Year's Message Calls for Peace, Threatens Too

Image Courtesy - Getty Images(PYONGYANG, North Korea) -- Communist North Korea's official New Year's message, carried on state-run media, calls for the two Koreas to work together for the best interests of the peninsula but also warns that war there would "bring nothing but a nuclear holocaust."

South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak said he is confident peace can be achieved and that South Korea's "sustained economic growth" will continue.

Tensions between the North and South have been running high throughout recent months, highlighted by North Korea's sinking of a South Korean naval vessel and the North's shelling of a small island in response to South Korean military training exercises.  Saturday's conciliatory messages run counter to recent rhetoric from both sides.

Both governments say they believe the two Koreas should be unified but North Korea's vision insists that it direct any new government.

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