KCNA COMMENTARY ON DOUBLE-DEALING OF S. KOREAN MILITARY

Pyongyang, February  8 (KCNA) --  The south  Korean military runs  reckless in the arms buildup to mar the atmosphere of peace and stability.

After  making public  a  "mid-term defense  program"  under the  pretext  of  "coping with military  threat and security  change at  present and those  potential in  the future," the south Korean military authorities  are planning to spend more than 250  billion U.S.

dollars for  military spending  - an  increase of  13.6 per  cent over  the previous  time  -under the program. It constitutes an extremely dangerous act to swim against the desire of all the fellow countrymen for a durable and lasting peace and stability in the Korean peninsula, and an undisguised provocation against the DPRK.

The reckless act is a challenge to the historic north-south declarations that have won full support and welcome from the public at home and abroad and, at the same time, a flagrant violation of those declarations.

Last year, the  north and the  south committed themselves to  leading the termination of military hostility  in the confrontation  area to the removal  of the danger of  war and hostility in  the whole  Korean peninsula  and, in  particular, to  reducing armaments  in proportion to the building of military confidence.

The south Korean authorities are obliged to ban all the acts running counter to the detente as specified in the declarations.

The military, which turned the whole of south Korea into the largest ammunition dump in the Far East under the pretext of non-existent "threat from the north", should have reduced without delay all of the lethal hardware  against the fellow countrymen in the north in the present situation.

However,  while trying  to  give  a  good impression  that  they  are interested  in  the military detente, the south Korean military is seeking  to spend huge military spending than  that  of the  period  of  the  tensions for  arms  buildup  and  the modernization  of military hardware.  They are even planning to purchase many F-35A,  Global Hawk, SM-3 and other foreign military hardware.

The acts make the DPRK doubt the attitude of the south Korean military to value the trend of the  present situation and  to make the  Korean peninsula a durable  and lasting peace zone.

The military forces  are describing their  measures as an  "act to lay  a foundation for the increased self-defense capabilities", but it is nothing but double-dealing.

The military  authorities never cover  up the fact  that their arms  buildup is aimed  at rounding off  the  system of  attack on  the  north called  "triad strike  system" renamed "system of countering nuclear and weapons of mass destruction".

The reality  clearly shows  that the  south Korean  military is  going to  persist in  the confrontation with fellow countrymen by force of arms.

Their reckless military act  after the north-south agreement to  end the fratricidal war incites our vigilance and causes serious concern among the public  at home and abroad, and it adversely affects the development of the present situation.

Such  double-dealing can  never  be pardoned  as they  are  smiling a  "reconciliation smile" before the DPRK but at the same  time sharpening the sword of confrontation to prevent the peace from being ensured in the Korean peninsula and the region.

The south Korean military would be well advised to ponder over their acts as they may result in an undesirable thing beyond expectation.