FM Spokesman Denounces U.S. Secretary of State's Reckless Remarks against DPRK

  Pyongyang, July 28 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry of the DPRK gave the following answer to the question put by KCNA on Thursday as regards the U.S. cunning moves at the ministerial meeting of ASEAN Regional Forum held in Laos to lay the blame for the escalating tension on the Korean peninsula at the door of the former, while taking issue with its self-defensive nuclear deterrent:
    U.S. Secretary of State Kerry spouted out foolish remarks that the U.S. has no hostile intent against north Korea at the ministerial meeting of the ASEAN Regional Forum on July 26.
    Why is the U.S. resorting to reckless saber-rattling, openly vociferating about "beheading operation" and "occupation of Pyongyang" after introducing all kinds of strategic assets into south Korea if it has no hostile intent against the DPRK?
    The successive U.S. presidents personally made public appearances and openly included the DPRK, a dignified sovereign state, on the list of preemptive nuclear attack while terming it "part of an axis of evil" and "a country that has to be removed" and cried out for "collapse of system." How can this be understood?
    Kerry asserted the joint military exercises have never posed problems and the DPRK-U.S. Agreed Framework was concluded with joint military exercises going on. This is sophism enough to make even a cat laugh.
    As he holds the post of the U.S. Secretary of State, he should know the historical facts that once joint military exercises were suspended after the U.S. complied with the demand of the DPRK for it and that those exercises have been one of major causes that made the hard-won DPRK-U.S. agreements go bust.
    The U.S. joint military exercises on the Korean peninsula are not attributable to the DPRK's access to nukes but because the U.S. steadily increased nuclear threats while ceaselessly holding war exercises for aggression, the DPRK was compelled to opt for having access to nuclear deterrence and bolster it up.
    The true aim sought by the U.S. is to shift the blame for the tension on the Korean peninsula on to the DPRK, secure a pretext for its arms buildup and joint military exercises pursuant to its rebalancing strategy in Asia-Pacific for aggression, and dodge the neighboring countries' protest and criticism of its decision to deploy THAAD in south Korea as an immediate task.
    No one can predict what situation the U.S. reckless arms buildup and the upcoming August joint military exercises will create on the Korean peninsula and in its vicinity.
    The U.S. frantic hostile policy toward the DPRK will prompt the DPRK to do everything it can to defend its sovereignty and dignity, and the U.S. will be held accountable for all the ensuing consequences. -0-