Dmitriy Yazov made the remarks in reference to North Korea's nuclear ambitions in an interview published in the latest edition of Sapio, a fortnightly Japanese international affairs magazine published this week.

"Kim Jong-Il once told me, 'We will not follow in Yugoslavia's steps'," said Yazov, who is reputed to be closely acquainted with Kim after seven meetings with him. He said he last met Kim in December.

"It means that if Yugoslavia possessed nuclear weapons it would not have seen an air bombardment by the United States and European countries," he was quoted as adding. "You may understand what he intends."

In 1999, an air bombing campaign by the NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) alliance ended Milosevic's repression of ethnic Albanians in the Serbian province of Kosovo.

A popular uprising brought about the fall of Milosevic in 2000 and he has been on trial since February 2001 for war crimes and crimes against humanity for his role in the 1990s Balkan wars.

Yanov, 80, has visited Pyongyang as the Soviet Far East military commander from 1984 to 1987, the defence minister and army marshal from 1987 to 1991, and as a personal guest of Kim's thereafter.

He is also known to have met Kim's father, the late president Kim Il-Sung, about a dozen times.

When asked about North Korea's nuclear programme, the former Soviet defence chief said he did not know everything about North Korea.

"What I can say is that finished nuclear missiles do not exist in North Korea now. It is extremely difficult for a small country to develop nuclear missiles."

But he told the magazine it was still possible for North Korea to use its "existing technology" to derive plutonium and mount warheads on its Rodong and Taepodong ballistic missiles, "albeit imperfectly."

He added it would be "fully possible" that, if the United States struck a North Korean nuclear facility, North Korea would launch attacks on nuclear reactors in South Korea and Japan.

"Kim Jong-Il has no intention of attacking Japan. It is an important trading partner and he attaches importance to Japan as a technological power," he said. "But it would be a different story if you were to give a lending hand to the United States in attacking North Korea."

WAR.WIRE