DPRK's Test-fire of SLBM Is Just: Foreign Ministry

 Pyongyang, April 26 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry of the DPRK gave the following answer to a question raised by KCNA Tuesday in connection with the fact that the U.S. is ratcheting up the pressure on the DPRK while citing the DPRK's test-fire of submarine-launched ballistic missile:
    The big success in test-fire of the SLBM brought about by the DPRK's scientists and technicians in the field of national defence marked a historical event as it provided another means of powerful nuclear attack of Juche Korea. It was the exercise of the just right to self-defence to safeguard the sovereignty and right to existence of the country and the nation from the U.S. escalating threat of nuclear war.
    But the U.S. and its followers spew out sophism that the test-fire is a violation of "resolutions" of the UN Security Council and renders the situation in the region and the world unstable.
    The U.S. even set in motion the UN Security Council to work out a statement which "denounced" the DPRK's ballistic missile activities, while terming them "an act of escalating regional and world tensions".
    We have flatly denied all the "resolutions" of the UN Security Council that sided with the U.S. vicious moves against the DPRK and have firmly safeguarded the peace on the Korean peninsula and the region by dint of the military capabilities for self-defence with the nuclear force as a pivot.
    The peace and security on the Korean peninsula are being wrecked by the U.S. which is keen on nuclear war moves targeting the DPRK with the mobilization of all nuclear strike means including strategic nuclear submarine.
    Now that the U.S. is rendering the situation extremely tense while persisting in hostile policy and nuclear threats to the DPRK, the only way for the DPRK to avert thermo-nuclear war on the Korean peninsula and the region is to ensure balance of force by dint of powerful nuclear deterrence.
    This being a hard fact, the U.S. is branding the measures taken by the DPRK to bolster nuclear force including the test-fire of SLBM as a threat to the peace and security in the region and the world. This is illogical and will only increase the danger of armed conflict and war on the Korean peninsula.
    The U.S. continued pursuance of extreme hostile policy and nuclear threat and blackmail against the DPRK will only make the latter make drastic progress in bolstering nuclear attack capabilities.
    We will bolster the nuclear force pursuant to the Workers' Party of Korea's strategic plan to counter the nuclear weapons in kind no matter what others may say. -0-