KPA General Staff Issues Report

Pyongyang, January 5 (KCNA) -- The General Staff of the Korean People's Army (KPA) issued the following report on Friday:

On the ratification of the General Staff of the KPA, units and sub-units in charge of the southwestern coastal defence under the 4th Corps of the KPA staged a naval live-shell firing drill into five districts with 192 shells by mobilizing 47 cannons of various calibers of 13 companies and 1 platoon force from 09:00 to 11:00 on January 5.

The claim of the military gangsters of the Republic of Korea that the KPA fired naval artillery shells into the waters north of Paekryong Island and Yonphyong Island, a so-called buffer zone in the West Sea of Korea, is a far-fetched assertion to mislead the public opinion, and their evacuation and firing in return are also a trite method to throw the responsibility for the escalating tension on the KPA's drill.

The direction of naval live-shell firing doesn't give even an indirect effect on Paekryong and Yonphyong islands.

The naval live-shell firing drill conducted in the southwestern sea is a sort of natural countermeasure taken by the KPA against the military actions of the ROK military gangsters who staged large-scale artillery firing and maneuvers in the vicinity of the entire border area by mobilizing units and sub-units of five corps from the outset of the year while vociferating about demonstration of response posture.

The military gangsters of the ROK should neither say this or that about the responsibility for escalating tension nor bring misfortune on themselves.

If the enemies commit an act which may be regarded as a provocation under the pretext of so-called counteraction, the KPA will show tough counteraction on an unprecedented level.

The concept about the same nation and fellow countrymen has already been removed from our cognition. -0-

www.kcna.kp (Juche113.1.5.)