North Korea threatens all-out war...again. This time are they for real?

Tensions couldn't be more strained on the divided Korean peninsula. North Korea has become increasingly belicose to its southern adversary and its allies.

The communist state has threatened to unleash its military muscle if the UN releases documents confirming that the South Korean vessel Cheonan was sunk by a North Korean torpedo.

However this is hardly the first time the North has threatened war.

It threaten to "reduce the South to ashes" in 2008 following the South Korean Defence Minister's claim that his country could destroy the North's nuclear sites with a pre-emptive strike.

Then came a new UN resolution in May 2009 which allowed North Korean vessels to be stopped and searched. The North wasted little time in stating how intent it was in using military action should such an event occur.

And yet in August 2009 the Indian Navy detained a North Korean ship off the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. There was no military response by North Korea.

It is same tactic of brinkmanship the country has employed time and time again. It threatens to unleash carnage and destruction on its southern neighbour, South Korea and its allies condemn the threats, then both sides back down.

And yet this time there is a hint that North Korea has a stronger resolve to go to war than before. Never before have they delivered such a threat in a speech to the UN.

Maybe the internal power struggles that are taking place as an ailing Kim Jong-Il tries to groom his younger son for power have made the military more determined to follow through on their military threat.

However North Korea knows that if it follows through on its threat of all-out war, it ultimately has everything to lose. And it will.