Press Statement of External Policy Office of DPRK

Foreign Ministry

Pyongyang, August 4 (KCNA) -- The External Policy Office of the Foreign Ministry of the
Democratic People's Republic of Korea, released the following press statement "We will
respond to hostile forces' any option with stronger counteraction" on Saturday:
The security environment of the Korean peninsula and the region has been exposed to a
serious threat, due to the reckless nuclear confrontation racket kicked up by the U.S. and the
ROK military gangsters recently.
The war maniacs of the U.S. and the ROK staged from July 30 to August 1 the nuclear
operation drill dubbed Iron Mace simulating a full-scale nuclear war under the pretext of
countering the DPRK's "use of nuclear weapons" at the Phyongthaek U.S. military base in
Kyonggi Province.
This shows that the nuclear war plan of the U.S. and the ROK, which have regularly modified
and examined the nuclear strike plan targeting the DPRK since they formed the "Nuclear
Consultative Group" according to the "Washington Declaration" in April last year, has entered
the phase of actual and detailed execution.
The provocative acts of the U.S., which has plunged the worrisome security environment of
the Korean peninsula into a more dangerous phase to persistently escalate the danger of a
nuclear clash in the region, clearly indicate the very one to be held accountable for the ever-
worsening regional situation.
Today's world has faced the unprecedented danger of a nuclear war, for the U.S. has
doggedly pursued its wild ambition for gaining the nuclear edge in disregard of global peace
and stability and regional security environment.
The acting assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Defense recently unveiled a design
to deploy more nuclear weapons and develop various nuclear strike means, accusing
independent sovereign countries of posing "threats."
In response to it, conservatives in the U.S. even call for deploying tactical nuclear weapons
in the ROK and expanding the tactical nuclear warhead production capacity of the U.S. They
even make such an extremely risky assertion that the U.S. should exert all its national power
on preparing for a war against independent sovereign countries.
The U.S. has annually and systematically increased expenditure on modernizing its nuclear
forces, stepping up the development of such new strategic nuclear strike means as
Columbia-class strategic nuclear submarine, new-type ICBM LGM-35A Sentinel and the
sixth-generation nuclear strategic bomber B-21 Raider. It gets frantic in the development of
new-type nuclear weapons, conducting high-powered bomb tests and sub-critical nuclear
tests.

After cooking up the "nuclear operation guidelines" with the ROK, the U.S. committed itself to
providing Japan with "extended deterrence" including nuclear weapons, inveigling its vassal
countries into the framework of a nuclear alliance.
All facts go to prove that the U.S. nuclear-based scheme to subdue the independent and
sovereign states in the Korean peninsula, the Asia-Pacific region and the rest of the world is
evolving in an extremely grave direction.
One side's such unilateral escalation of nuclear threat and provocative modification of
nuclear posture stress the need for the other side to bolster up the self-defensive nuclear
deterrence and perfect the preparations for a nuclear war.
The U.S. reckless nuclear confrontation racket makes clearer the DPRK's choice and goal
for defending the security interests of the state and the regional peace and stability.
It is the constitutional duty of the nuclear forces of the DPRK to deter nuclear attacks of any
forms and scales to be schemed or attempted by the hostile states, and to defend the
national sovereignty and territorial integrity from present and future uncertain security
environment.
If hostile states opt for making themselves and the world less secure, the DPRK is ready to
take the most necessary measures to ensure its sovereignty and security interests and
regional and global peace and stability.
The U.S. and its followers are bound to bear the whole responsibility for the catastrophic
consequences to be entailed by their reckless option. -0-