Spokesman for KPA General Staff Clarifies Principled Stand on Nuclear War Drill against DPRK

Pyongyang, August 22 (KCNA) -- The U.S. imperialists and the south Korean puppet forces started the largest-ever joint military drill Ulji Freedom Guardian on August 22.
    The drill which will last till early in September is aimed to acquire the capability for making a surprise preemptive nuclear attack on the DPRK by "combined forces" in contingency on the Korean peninsula and carry out multi-phased scenario for invading the DPRK.
    A spokesman for the General Staff of the Korean People's Army (KPA) in a statement Monday said that the saber-rattling is a clear manifestation of a vicious plot to deprive the service personnel and people of the DPRK of their cradle by force of arms and inflict a miserable fate of colonial slavery upon them.
    The situation on the Korean peninsula is so tense that a nuclear war may break out any moment, the statement noted, and went on:
    In view of the prevailing grave situation the KPA General Staff solemnly declares upon authorization the following principled stand of the revolutionary armed forces of the DPRK to cope with the U.S. imperialists and the south Korean puppet forces' reckless moves for a nuclear war against it that have gone beyond the danger line:
    They should properly know that from this moment the first-strike combined units of the KPA keep themselves fully ready to mount a preemptive retaliatory strike at all enemy attack groups involved in Ulji Freedom Guardian.
    The nuclear warmongers should bear in mind that if they show the slightest sign of aggression on the inviolable land, seas and air where the sovereignty of the DPRK is exercised, it would turn the stronghold of provocation into a heap of ashes through Korean-style preemptive nuclear strike.
    The revolutionary armed forces of the DPRK will hold their bayonets more tightly to annihilate the enemies in the future, too, in order to put a definite end to the nuclear war moves of the U.S. imperialists and the south Korean puppet forces.
    It is the resolute determination and will of the Paektusan revolutionary armed forces to terminate the ever more reckless moves of the U.S. imperialists and the south Korean puppet forces for a nuclear war not temporarily but indefinitely.
    We once again declare that the revolutionary armed forces of the DPRK with remarkably increased capability for mounting a preemptive nuclear attack of Korean style are waiting for a historic chance to blow up all strongholds of aggression and war and liberate the southern half of Korea.
    The nuclear warmongers should not forget the iron will of the KPA even a moment. -0-