U.S.-S. Korea Ulji Freedom Guardian Joint Military Drills under Fire

  Pyongyang, August 13 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry of the DPRK released a statement on Thursday in connection with the fact that the U.S. announced it would stage together with south Korean puppet forces aggressive Ulji Freedom Guardian joint military drills targeting the DPRK from August 17.
    Accusing the U.S. of again trying to cover up the aggressive nature and danger of the drills by describing them as "annual and defensive" ones, the statement said:
    In actuality, the U.S. is plugging the DPRK into an arms race through ceaseless war drills and arms build-up in a sinister bid to throw hurdles in its efforts to develop its economy and improve the standard of its people's living and force them to live under a touch-and-go situation and thus seek an opportunity for a preemptive attack upon it.
    The U.S. projected war rehearsal clearly proves that the U.S. is the arch criminal sparking off a vicious cycle of escalating confrontation and tension and creating the danger of a war on the Korean peninsula.
    The DPRK is no longer what used to be in the 1950s. It has strong military muscle to cope with any mode of war desired by the U.S.
    The U.S. had better know that its aggressive and provocative large-scale war drills are no longer issues confined to the DPRK-U.S. relations and the relations between the north and the south of Korea but have become an international issue as the drills harass peace and security in Northeast Asia and other parts of Asia and the world.
    If the U.S. persistently opts for military confrontation despite the repeated warnings of the DPRK and the unanimous censure by the international community, it will be held wholly accountable for all the ensuing consequences.
    We will not indefinitely wait for the switch of the U.S. Korea policy while having our sovereignty and security being threatened, but make all necessary steps to deter the U.S. nuclear provocation. -0-