SEOUL, Feb. 17 (Xinhua) -- South Korea will describe the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) as an "immediate and grave threat" to its national security in its defense white paper for 2008, the South Korean Defense Ministry said Tuesday.

    "This year we have decided to term it a threat both immediate and grave," said Lee Bung-woo, a spokesman for the Defense Ministry.

    In the biyearly defense white book for 2004 and 2006, South Korea has defined DPRK an "immediate" or "grave" security threat, respectively. It was the first time in recent years that Seoul used the two terms simultaneously in a single white paper.

    The Defense Ministry said it plans to release the new defense white paper on Friday.

    The new white paper came amid the rising tensions over the Korean Peninsula as the DPRK and South Korea have heightened military confrontation along their land border and disputed maritime borders in the Yellow Sea.