Foreign Ministry Official Clarifies Stand of DPRK at Interview with AP Pyongyang Bureau Chief

Pyongyang, June 24 (KCNA) -- The director general of the Department of U.S. Affairs of the Foreign Ministry of the DPRK had an interview with the visiting chief of the AP Pyongyang Bureau on Friday on the recent situation on the Korean peninsula and the issue of the DPRK-U.S. relations.
    Answering questions about the present situation on the peninsula, the director general strongly denounced the U.S. for recently introducing such strategic assets as the nuclear-powered submarine Mississippi and a B-52H strategic bombers formation one after another into south Korea, staging a drill for mounting a preemptive nuclear strike on the DPRK and extremely straining the situation on the Korean peninsula.
    The director general referred to the DPRK's principled stand that it is left with no other option but to steadily take steps for bolstering its nuclear deterrence for self-defence including nuclear test and missile launch in order to cope with the ever-increasing threat of aggression from the U.S. and its followers.
    In connection with the test-fire of the surface-to-surface strategic intermediate ballistic rocket Hwasong-10, he said that it is the stand of the DPRK that it should have strong attack means capable of posing constant threat to the enemies in order to firmly protect the security of the country and its people from the threat being constantly posed by the U.S. and other forces hostile to the DPRK.
    Over the issue of improving the relations with the U.S., he recalled that at the Seventh Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea supreme leader Kim Jong Un urged the U.S. to roll back its anachronistic hostile policy toward the DPRK, replace the armistice agreement with a peace treaty and withdraw its aggressor troops and war hardware from south Korea by correctly understanding the strategic position of the DPRK which has ranked itself among the advanced nuclear weapons states and facing up to the trend of the times.
    The director general clarified the stand of the DPRK to improve and normalize its relations with the countries that respect its sovereignty and are friendly to it although they were in hostile relations with it in the past. -0-