U.S. Forces′ Presence in S. Korea Is Vivid Expression of Hostile Policy toward DPRK:           Foreign Ministry Spokesman

Pyongyang, September 7 (KCNA) -- The DPRK Foreign Ministry spokesman released the following statement Friday with the lapse of 67 years since the U.S. forces' occupation of south Korea:

The U.S. occupation of south Korea in the first days of Cold War between the East and the West was aimed to secure a bridgehead for realizing its strategy for the military domination of the Eurasian continent.

This quenched the nation's desire for complete sovereignty of the country and its independent development and led to the territorial and national division.

From the first day of its presence in south Korea, the U.S. trained pro-U.S. forces and prodded them to escalate confrontation with the fellow countrymen in its ceaseless moves to launch invasion and ignite a new war to seize whole Korean Peninsula.

For more than half a century the DPRK has fallen a victim to the U.S. forces in south Korea which regarded the DPRK as the No. 1 target of attack. This compelled the DPRK to build its own nuclear deterrent even by tightening its belt to cope with the nuclear threats from the world's biggest nuclear weapons state.

The U.S. forces' presence in south Korea turned the Korean Peninsula into the world's biggest hotspot and it has become a malignant tumor that seriously threatens peace and stability in Northeast Asia and, furthermore, the rest of the world.

Pursuant to the new defense strategy of amassing armed forces in the Asia-Pacific region, the U.S. seeks its forces' permanent presence in south Korea while saying that their mission is to "maintain regional peace", not just to "defend" south Korea.

The U.S. forces in south Korea are becoming forward-deployed forces and "strategic mobile forces" whose nature and role are to contain China and Russia and hold military hegemony in the region. Here the south Korean puppet forces are playing the role of colonial stooges tasked with the duty of executing the U.S. war policy for aggression.

The U.S. is increasing the frequency and scale of military exercises of various codenames to boost the U.S. mobility and attack capabilities under the pretext of coping with "provocations" and "nuclear threats" from the DPRK, thereby pushing the situation to the brink of a war.

The U.S. persistent denial of the conclusion of a peace treaty with the DPRK is aimed to keep the DPRK as its enemy, a pretext for its forces' permanent presence in south Korea.

The U.S. forces' presence in south Korea is the most vivid expression of the U.S. hostile policy toward the DPRK.

As long as its forces remain in south Korea, the U.S. is not entitled to claim that it has no hostile intent toward the DPRK and no one will believe it, either.

The U.S. continued hostile policy toward the DPRK will only force the DPRK to bolster its nuclear deterrent, making the prospect for solving the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula gloomier.

The withdrawal of the U.S. forces from south Korea is a common task of parties concerned desirous of lasting peace and prosperity of the Korean Peninsula and the rest of Northeast Asia.

If the U.S. seeks to keep its forces in south Korea, contrary to the unanimous desire of the regional people, it had better get itself ready to taste an all-out war with the DPRK. –