DPRK FM Spokesman Lashes at Ulji Freedom Guardian

 Pyongyang, August 22 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the DPRK Foreign Ministry made public the following statement Monday:
    The U.S. is again bringing the grave danger of a nuclear war to the Korean peninsula.
    On August 22 it started Ulji Freedom Guardian joint military drill targeting the DPRK with many forces deployed in south Korean, Japanese and other overseas bases, south Korean puppet forces and huge war means involved.
    The large-scale joint military drill for aggression being staged by the U.S. in collusion with the south Korean puppet forces despite repeated warnings of the DPRK is a grave military provocation aimed to launch a preemptive nuclear attack on the DPRK from A to Z and a challenge to regional peace and stability.
    The military drill is an unpardonable criminal act of pushing the situation on the Korean peninsula to the brink of a war as the situation there has become unprecedentedly instable due to the U.S. introduction of nuclear strategic bombers, THAAD and other strategic assets into the peninsula and its vicinity.
    The U.S. is creating an evil cycle of tensions while ceaselessly staging offensive joint military exercises for aggression and bolstering up armed forces. Lurking behind this is a scenario to create again the same most extreme situation as that in August last year at any cost and thus introduce more strategic assets into south Korea under this pretext, justify the formation of the U.S.-Japan-south Korea triangular military alliance and maintain military hegemony in this region.
    Detente, peace and security on the Korean peninsula and in the region would not be unthinkable unless the U.S.-south Korea joint military exercises for aggression are totally halted.
    We have chosen the way of building nuclear force to protect our state and social system from the U.S. constant nuclear threat and taken hold on the strategic line for bolstering up nuclear force.
    It is the consistent stand of the DPRK government to fundamentally terminate the danger of a nuclear war posed by the U.S. by dint of the powerful nuclear deterrence and defend the regional and global peace.
    The U.S. hostile policy toward the DPRK and nuclear threats including ceaseless war exercises for aggression are bound to meet the resolute and merciless counteraction by the army and people of the DPRK. -0-