The chief of the External Policy Office of the Foreign Ministry of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea on January 17 issued the following press statement “We will contain the planned hostile military provocations and control the unstable regional situation with a more thorough exercise of the right to self-defence”:

From the outset of the year the US and its satellite states are getting ever more undisguised in their military provocations to pose a grave challenge to the security environment of the DPRK.

On January 6 and 9, the US Air Force strategic reconnaissance planes flew over the Korean peninsula several times to perpetrate aerial espionage against the DPRK's strategic depth. On January 10, the fourth US-ROK “nuclear consultative group” meeting was held in Washington to plot a nuclear war drill on the Korean peninsula and an increase in the visibility of the deployment of the US strategic assets.

On January 15, B-1B strategic bombers of the US Air Force were deployed in the sky over the open sea near the Korean peninsula to conduct a US-Japan-ROK joint air drill. On the same day, the US and ROK air forces staged the first air live-shell firing drill for this year.

The US political and military provocations, witnessed day after day on the Korean peninsula where huge armed forces of warring countries are on high alert and the possibility of constant military conflict is hovering, are the direct root cause increasing the danger of armed conflict and disturbing the regional stability.

The US, which spent the end of last year with the largest-ever war drills, entered the new year with military provocations involving its satellite countries. This goes to prove that it is the US which has brought instability to the region, and foretells the apprehension-arousing direction to be followed by the military and political situation on the Korean peninsula this year.

The DPRK Foreign Ministry expresses serious concern over the provocations by the US and its allies that add another factor of instability to the very serious tension on the Korean peninsula, and clarifies once again that the DPRK's exercise of the right to self-defence to defend the sovereign rights and security interests of the state will be conducted more intensively.

The DPRK's access to a more overwhelming war deterrent aimed at countering the US-led hostile states' military threat is an essential requirement for maintaining the balance of forces on the Korean peninsula and ensuring the security of the regional situation.

As already clarified, the DPRK will strongly deter any military provocation planned by the hostile forces and firmly defend the security interests of the state and the regional peace and stability by exercising more thoroughly and perfectly the right to self-defence, pursuant to its toughest counteraction strategy.

KCNA