DPRK FOREIGN MINISTRY SPOKESMAN DENOUNCES U.S. INTRODUCTION OF NUCLEAR SUBMARINE INTO S. KOREA

Pyongyang, July 15 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry of the DPRK gave the following answer to the question raised by KCNA Friday as regards the U.S. introduction of another nuclear submarine into south Korea: On July 13 nuclear-powered submarine Ohio, one of the major strategic strike means of the U.S., made an entry into Pusan Port of south Korea.

The 18 000-ton class super large nuclear submarine is capable of mounting missile attacks with stealth function. In June the U.S. brought to south Korea nuclear submarine Mississippi and the formation of B-52H strategic bombers.

The U.S. introduction into the Korean peninsula of strategic nuclear strike means at a time when the DPRK-U.S. relations and the regional situation are growing extremity tense is a revelation of its hostile attempt to stifle the DPRK by force at any cost.

Also lurking behind it is an ambition to contain other rival countries in the region by force and establish military hegemony in Northeast Asia.

It is foolhardy for the U.S. not to properly understand the strategic position of the DPRK that has ranked itself among the nuclear powers and the trend of the times, but to try to bring down the DPRK through military pressure and threat.

Not content with reckless arms buildup, war exercises and sanctions racket to retrieve its failure in its DPRK policy, the U.S. does not hesitate to hurt the dignity of the supreme leadership of the DPRK.

This is rendering the situation on the Korean peninsula and in the region extremely tense and increasing the danger of a nuclear war. The present situation in which the U.S. has become hell-bent on encroaching upon the sovereignty and nuclear threat and blackmail while more openly pursuing its hegemonic strategy in reliance on military muscle clearly proves once again how just the DPRK was when it adopted the line of simultaneously pushing forward economic construction and the building of nuclear force.

Lasting peace on the Korean peninsula and in the region can never be realized by unilateral efforts of the DPRK and it is possible only when the military hostile acts of the U.S. which is chiefly to blame for the tension and its anachronistic hostile policy toward the DPRK are terminated.

The present situation in which the U.S. is more viciously pursuing its hostile policy toward the DPRK compels it to further bolster its nuclear deterrence for self-defence.

Unshakable is the will of the DPRK to fundamentally defuse in reliance on powerful nuclear deterrence the danger of a nuclear war being brought by the U.S. and safeguard peace on the Korean peninsula and in the region.