DPRK Foreign Ministry Spokesman Blasts U.S., south Korean Puppet Forces' UFG

Pyongyang, August 18 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the DPRK Foreign Ministry

issued a statement on Monday assailing the U.S. and the south Korean puppet

forces for kicking off Ulji Freedom Guardian joint military exercises against the DPRK.

The statement said: The U.S. is becoming all the more undisguised in its criminal moves to disturb peace and ignite a nuclear war through a vicious cycle of tensions on the Korean peninsula and in the region.

The U.S. kicked off together with the south Korean puppet forces the Ulji Freedom Guardian against the DPRK despite its repeated warnings and serious concern of the international community. The U.S. is staging ceaseless ever-larger scale joint military exercises on the Korean peninsula and in its vicinity several times in a year. They are grave military provocations against the DPRK and unpardonable criminal acts of disturbing peace and security.

In order to prevent world public from focusing its criticism on the aggressive nature and danger of the joint military exercises, the U.S. is letting loose such sophism as describing them as "annual" and "defensive" ones. They are, at the same time, terming countermeasures of the DPRK "threat" and "provocation" like a thief crying "Stop the thief!"

When the DPRK's principled stand and efforts to defuse tensions on the Korean peninsula and create a peaceful environment drew support and sympathy from those countries in the region at the recent ministerial meeting of the ASEAN Regional Forum held in Myanmar, U.S. Secretary of State Kerry at the talks between the diplomatic and defense chiefs of the U.S. and Australia held two days later impudently blustered that the just self-defensive steps of the DPRK are "wrecking stability in the whole region" and sparking off "serious concern".

On Friday a deputy spokesperson of the U.S. State Department and a spokesperson of the U.S. Defense Department vied with each other to make such belligerent remarks that it would continue joint military exercises while terming the tactical rocket test-fire of the DPRK a "threat".

Despicable, indeed, is the attitude of the U.S. authorities resorting to foolish deceptive artifice and intrigues to justify their acts to perpetrate aggression and disturb peace. It is an inveterate method of aggression of the U.S. to ignite a war while making profound confusing of right and wrong.

The U.S. has staged a total of more than 18 000 war maneuvers of various forms for aggression in south Korea for more than six decades since the 1950s, but it claims they have never posed any threat to the north. But it contends that even a single test-fire and drill of tactical guided-missiles for self-defence conducted by the Korean People's Army to cope with them should be called into question. This is the American-style standard and brigandish logic.

Joint military exercises staged in south Korea after the U.S. announced its new defense strategy are assuming more aggressive nature and their scale and frequency are steadily increasing, ranging from the largest-ever joint landing drill aimed to "occupy Pyongyang" to a drill for "breaking through the Military Demarcation Line" all of a sudden, a drill for "restoring administrative units after occupying the north" and a special operation drill for destroying the headquarters of the DPRK.

The U.S. announced that it would apply for the first time during the exercises "tailored deterrence strategy" which calls for mounting a preemptive strike by mobilizing all forms of armed forces including nuclear weapons if a sign of "the use of nuclear weapons and missiles" of someone is detected. This is another undisguised nuclear threat and blackmail.

The danger of the tensions on the Korean peninsula at present, together with the

U.S. threat to mount a preemptive nuclear strike being rapidly put into practice, lies in that it is disturbing global peace and security going beyond the regional scale. The joint military exercises being staged under the pretext of the "threat" from the DPRK are strictly pursuant to the U.S. strategy for world domination to bring down the social system in the DPRK and eye the Asian continent with the Korean peninsula as a bridgehead. This is a stark reality which no one can deny.

The U.S. armed buildup in Northeast Asia including the Korean peninsula and the world's largest war maneuvers will spark off a new arms race and Cold War. The threat of one party is bound to trigger off retaliation from the other party and a war is bound to break out in this course. This is a lesson taught by history.

If one is weak though one is very honest-minded and just, one is bound to fall victim to the strong and a genuine peace is protected only when one is strong. This is the immutable logic reflected in the DPRK's line of simultaneously developing the two fronts.

If the international community wants peace and stability in the region and the rest of the world, it should recognize the validity and inevitability of the self-defensive steps of the DPRK to protect the security of the country and nation, and take issues with the US AND south Korean puppet foeces’ provocative nuclear drills and hold them in check.

As long as the nuclear war maneuvers go on to stifle the DPRK by force, it will

put its self-defensive counteraction on an annual and regular basis and take steps at

a higher stage in the future which no one can predict.