Pyongyang, August 19 (KCNA) -- Kim Yo Jong, department director of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, Wednesday expressed the following stand as regards the major international issues escalating the global security crisis:
The trend of the present unpredictable and complicated international situation is a source of the escalation of the geopolitical crisis in different parts of the world and serious concern of the international community aspiring after peace and stability.
As the evil cycle of confrontation persists in the Middle East, the epitome of conflict and chaos in the world, distrust and discord among regional countries further deepen, bloodshed lasts without cease and the unprecedented political and economic instability gets worse on a worldwide scale.
And the phase of prolonged armed conflict has entered a more serious stage in Europe owing to the reckless confrontational intention of the Western group to impose a strategic defeat on Russia by using Ukraine as an agent of a proxy war.
Even in the Korean peninsula, the biggest hotspot in the world for centuries, the regional security environment is facing constant challenges due to the U.S. and its vassal forces' attempt at geopolitical expansion and their greedy arms buildup.
The present situation of the world, where the vicious cycle of tension persists in not only the Middle East and Europe but also the Asia-Pacific region including the Korean peninsula due to the high-handed practice and the abuse of power by the hegemonic forces, calls upon all the countries to make their principled stand clearer in pursuing justice and equity and defending their national security and interests.
The DPRK remains unchanged in its view and stand that the U.S. and the West's threat to the security of Russia that has been systematically getting serious since the end of the Cold War is the main factor that triggered the present Ukrainian crisis.
The better future of Europe can not be realized apart from the core interests and will of the Russian Federation.
We think that uprooting the cause of the conflict is the main solution to putting an end to the Ukrainian crisis and ensuring sustainable and durable peace in the region. And we fully support the righteous action of the Russian government and people to defend the national sovereignty, security interests and territorial integrity.
Availing of this opportunity, I make clear that the theory of the "dispatch of additional troops" of our army, which the Zelenskiy group invented and propagates, is an ungrounded farce of Kiev and that the U.S. and the West are entirely responsible for the start of the Ukrainian crisis and its prolongation.
The overall cooperation between the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the Russian Federation is strictly in accordance with the treaty on comprehensive strategic partnership between the two sides which is in conformity with the purpose and principle of the UN Charter and is a legal domain of exercise of sovereign right.
The DPRK constantly maintains concentration on its duty as a contracting party of the inter-state treaty between the DPRK and Russia in conformity with it allied nature and remains boundlessly faithful to it.
The DPRK is seriously following the reckless attempt of Japan for military expansion, a dangerous factor of causing imbalance of strength in the Asia-Pacific region including the Korean peninsula and consider it a potential and prospective threat.
The DPRK regards Japan's reweaponization as a serious threat. This means that the DPRK pays more attention to Japan and gets strong perception that it regards the latter as a military target. It also hints that Japan's security is in more dangerous state.
Our military leadership already started to regard it as part of its military strategy to deter and contain the threat of Japan, which is evolving into a serious security challenge, or do something more beyond it.
In other words, this means that if Japan tries to make a wrong choice, it will face immediate annihilating blow impossible to survive.
Japan's military development is a suicidal act taking oil to extinguish the fire.
We will constantly maintain a fundamental way of approach for removing danger and ensuring genuine peace and stability from the standpoint of strong power and on the basis of the stark reality that the greatest threat to the security interests of our state and the regional security environment is coming from the U.S.
As for the reduction of the U.S.-ROK joint military drill abruptly announced by the U.S. president a few days ago, we regard it as the one unworthy of comment and have no interest in it at all.
The reduction of the scale and duration of the drill does not mean the change of the nature of the military drill with a provocative and offensive feature.
This year alone, the U.S. and the ROK have conducted joint military exercises in different spaces and spheres without space-time gap, including the bilateral air drills Buddy Squadron in February, the combined small unit drill and large-scale joint military exercises Freedom Shield in March, the U.S.-ROK Navy combined salvage exercise, combined mine warfare exercise and the combined large-scale air drills Freedom Flag in April, combined air training Hercules Guardians in May and the combined logistics support drill and bilateral air drills Buddy Squadron in July.
This suggests that the drill which was recently said to be reduced is fully substituted for such drills.
This being a hard fact, the ROK claimed that the ongoing war drill is military one of a defensive nature simulating someone's attack and talked about the strengthening of the "firm ROK-U.S. alliance" and acceleration of introduction of a nuclear submarine, fully exposing its hostile nature.
We are paying more attention to the fact that the joint military drills between the U.S. and the ROK have been steadily staged and are still under way, not to the reduction or shortening of individual drills, and we are correctly seeing through the fact that this is an obvious expression of their obvious hostility toward the DPRK.
If the U.S. calculates that it can propagate its recent measure as the one of so-called good faith, they will not get desired answer.
As for the news from Washington that shortly ago, there was a communication between the leaders of the DPRK and the U.S., I am not aware of it at all, and perhaps it may be the only thing I do not know as regards the foreign policy of our supreme leadership.
I had already clarified several times that our head of state has good memories and feelings about Trump personally.
The relationship between those two leaders is still excellent.
It is well known to the world and not a matter to be surprised, I think.
However, the U.S. hostile policy toward the DPRK has remained unchanged and the U.S. and its followers are now violently conducting hostile military activities against the DPRK even this moment.
Likewise, I would like to stress that the exercise of the sovereign rights of the DPRK intended to contain the forces threatening its security is very reasonable, appropriate and essential and it has nothing to do with the excellent relations between the leaders of the two countries.
History and reality prove that it is possible to maintain balanced and stable security structure of the region when the DPRK has stronger deterrent. -0-
