South Korea will attack Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, in retaliation if the communist country strikes Seoul, the capital of the South, an official said Monday.

South Korea has set up the principle of tit-for-tat retaliation in dealing with North Korea's possible aggression against Seoul and its adjacent areas, the senior military official said in a recent meeting with reporters.

South Korea "will immediately retaliate" against North Korea "in self-defense in the event of a North Korean provocation," the official said, without elaborating on North Korean targets.

The South has surface-to-surface guided missiles and cruise missiles capable of striking key North Korean facilities, including its nuclear and missile bases, according to defense officials.

The move comes amid rising tensions over Pyongyang's planned long-range rocket launch. The North says the launch set for sometime between April 12 and 16 is designed to put an earth observation satellite into orbit.

However, South Korea, the United States and other regional powers suspect the launch could be a cover for testing the North's ballistic missile technology, which is banned under a U.N. resolution.

North Korea has threatened to launch a "sacred war" against South Korea in recent weeks over Seoul's defamation of the dignity of its new leader Kim Jong-un and his late father, Kim Jong-il.

North Korea's frontline units are "poised for attack with their guns leveled at" South Korea's presidential office in Seoul and Incheon, the North's official Korean Central News Agency reported last month.

Seoul, the South Korean capital city of more than 10 million people, is within range of North Korea's artillery.

The North has long bristled at any outside criticism of its leader and has made similar threats against the South over the past several months, although no actual attack has occurred yet.

South Korea has strengthened its defense posture against North Korea and repeatedly pledged to retaliate against the communist country in the event of a North Korean provocation.

Tensions still persist on the divided peninsula over the deadly March 2010 sinking of a South Korean warship blamed on the North and a November 2010 artillery attack on a South Korean border island. The two attacks killed 50 South Koreans, mostly soldiers. (Yonhap News)