SEOUL (AP) -- South Korea's defense chief called Wednesday for a pre-emptive strike on North Korea if there is a clear indication the country is preparing a nuclear attack.

Meanwhile, a state-run think tank predicted a military coup, popular uprising, a massacre or mass defections after North Korean leader Kim Jong Il dies. Kim, who turns 68 next month, is believed to have suffered a stroke in 2008.
The comments and speculation - made even as officials from the two Koreas discussed further developing a joint industrial complex in the North - were likely to anger Pyongyang, which recently threatened to break off dialogue and to attack Seoul.
North and South Korea have remained locked in a state of war and divided by a heavily fortified border since their three-year conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, in 1953.
After a decade of warming ties, relations between the two Koreas turned frosty in 2008 with the inauguration of conservative South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, who has called on North Korea to stick to its disarmament commitments.