Press Statement Issued by Adviser from Korea-Europe Association

Pyongyang, August 29 (KCNA) -- Kim Son Gyong, adviser from the Korea-Europe Association released the following statement on Thursday:

The United Kingdom, France and Germany, which were recently denouncing our regular military exercises and self-defensive measures as "provocation" or "violation of resolutions" of the UN Security Council, brought the issue to the UN Security Council and released a so-called 3-state "joint statement" on August 27.

The United Kingdom, France and Germany are meddling every time with our self-defensive measures for arms modernization. These are preposterous actions which no one will ever understand.

The UNSC "resolutions" targeting the DPRK - which these countries employ as a yardstick for denouncing the DPRK - are no less than illegal and inhumane documents that prove to flagrantly violate the UN Charter and other universally recognized international laws and trample the rights to self-defense and survival of the sovereign state, and accordingly, we have never acknowledged them.

The DPRK harbors a bitter historical lesson whereby the whole of country had been subjected to the beasts of Japanese imperialism for over 40 years because of the absence of strength to defend itself and again turned into the debris as a result of the catastrophe caused by war.

There will be no greater mistake if they think that we, the DPRK, will be forced to give up our self-defensive right for ensuring peace, by being weighed down with such irrational documents in all their entirety.

One should defend one's own security by oneself. This has become much more apparent by those countries whose destinies were hacked to pieces by the western powers as they had yielded to the latter's demand for disarmament under the pressure and appeasement of "international society." This is again further evidenced by the international relations of today where the weak can hardly appeal to anybody, though attacked by the strong.

Those countries, which took issue with us, have in effect lost their faces to "condemn" anybody as they became so hungry for money as to sell off their military equipment to south Korea, though habitually saying that they want peace and security on the Korean peninsula.

These countries are rushing to pick up an unreasonable quarrel with us over our measures for developing conventional weapons, while deliberately turning their faces away from the military exercises and the introduction of latest lethal weapons in south Korea. They need to wake up to the reality that such an indiscreet and unreasonable act will only delay the point of time for dialogue which they so much desire to see.

It is our stand to develop the relations with the European countries on good terms. But this should, under any circumstances, be based on mutual respect for each other's sovereignty.

The United Kingdom, France and Germany should get rid of their rigid and prejudiced way of thinking and help to ease tensions and ensure peace on the Korean peninsula. If they are not able to do so, it would be better to keep silence and mind their own turbulent businesses instead. -0-