Press Statement of Vice Department Director of
WPK Central Committee Kim Yo Jong

Pyongyang, November 5 (KCNA) -- Kim Yo Jong, vice department director of the
Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, made public the following press
statement "Ever-escalating military threats of hostile forces only prove the validity of
our line of bolstering up nuclear forces" on Monday:
The U.S., Japan and the ROK frantically staged a combined air drill targeting our
Republic once again in front of us on November 3.
Various fighter jets of the three countries, led by U.S. strategic bomber B-1B, were
involved in the drill under the signboard of "counteraction" and "warning" to our latest
strategic weapon test. They reportedly got familiar with the "mode of promptly and
correctly striking" the simulated opponent's core objects.
The military gangsters of the ROK declared that they would further tighten the
triangular military cooperation against us in the future, blustering "the drill showcased
the strong countering will and capability based on the ROK-U.S.-Japan security
cooperation, as well as the integrated extended deterrence execution faculty of the
ROK-U.S. alliance to counter and deter ever-escalating nuclear and missile threats
from the north."
This is just another outright action-based explanation of the most hostile and
dangerous aggressive nature of the enemy toward our Republic and, at the same
time, another absolute proof of the validity and urgency of the line of building up the
nuclear forces we have opted for and put into practice.
Today upset of the balance of power between rivals on the Korean peninsula and in
the region precisely means a war. And this is an undeniable objective reality.
I point out once again that the U.S. and its followers held more than 20 rounds of
various war confabs to map out plans for using nuclear weapons against our state
this year alone and ceaselessly staged one hundred and tens of anti-DPRK military
drills all the year round to implement them.
The drastically increased number of war rehearsals like Freedom Edge, the first
multi-domain joint military exercises between the U.S., Japan and the ROK, and Iron
Mace, a nuclear operation drill simulating an all-out nuclear war on the Korean
peninsula, posed a serious threat to not only our state but also regional peace and
security.

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This year nuclear aircraft carrier strike groups, including the one of Theodore
Roosevelt, were deployed near the Korean peninsula three times and the nuclear-
powered strategic submarine Vermont made its first appearance in the ROK, while
B-52H and other nuclear-capable strategic bombers flied in the sky above the
Korean peninsula five times, updating once again the recent records of deployment
of U.S. strategic assets.
The critical security environment facing our state eloquently proves the inevitability of
the strategic choice made by us to creditably defend our state's security and regional
peace from the U.S. and its followers' aggressive and adventuristic military threats.
The ever-escalating hysteric military threats of the rivals will further highlight the
justness and urgency of our line and it will be implemented in corresponding dynamic
and intensity.
The line of bolstering up the self-defensive nuclear deterrent, being pursued by the
Democratic People's Republic of Korea, is the most correct, one and only choice
made by it in the current situation, and we will never vacillate in that way. -0-