SEOUL, KOREA - SOUTH Korean teenagers see the United States as a greater threat to national security than North Korea, and a majority do not know that the North started the 1950-53 war, surveys published on Tuesday showed.

The Ministry of Public Administration and Security surveyed 1,016 middle and high school students to mark Wednesday's 58th anniversary of the North's invasion, local newspapers reported.

Fewer than half knew the war began in 1950 and just 48.7 per cent said the communist North started it. Others blamed Japan (13.5 per cent), the United States (13.4), Russia (11), China (3.4) and South Korea itself (2).

Some 64 per cent were not worried about the North starting another war and only 56 per cent said they felt threatened by its nuclear weapons.

The United States, Seoul's decades-long ally, was seen by 28.4 per cent as the biggest national security threat to South Korea, followed by Japan (27.7), North Korea (24.5) and China (13).

The United States led a United Nations coalition which fought for the South after the North invaded with the consent of the Soviet Union. China sent troops to help the North when UN forces advanced close to its border.

'Some say the liberal governments, which held power for the past 10 years, did not teach children enough about the war and the current status of Korea, but focused on reconciliation of the two Koreas,' Mr Baek Seung Joo of the Korea Institute for Defence Analysis told the Korea Times.

Despite being unaware of their history, the students are patriotic, with almost 81 per cent saying they feel proud of their country.

North Korea meanwhile reiterated its stance that the United States launched the war.

'The US imperialists launched the Korean War by invading the DPRK (North Korea) by surprise on June 25, 1950 after completing preparations for a war such as this,' said the ruling party newspaper Rodong Sinmun on Tuesday.

'The US imperialists' crime of launching the war can never be covered up.' -- AFP