A spokesman for the State Affairs Commission of the DPRK released the following statement on November 13:

We explicitly defined the joint military drill being planned by the US and south Korea as a main factor of screwing up the tensions of the Korean peninsula and the region out of control, and have expressed deep concern over it and repeatedly warned them to stop it.

Despite our repeated warnings, the US and south Korean side decided to push ahead with the military drill hostile to the DPRK at the most sensitive time. This has further enraged our people, making it hard for them to keep patience they have so far exercised.

The US Defense Department and Joint Chiefs of Staff, asserting that they would not adjust the scale of the projected US-south joint air drill and stage it in consideration of north Korea's anger, openly said now is the time to launch a joint drill of such type and it is aimed at girding itself to go into a war even tonight.

And the US is not accepting with due consideration the year-end time limit that we set out of great patience and magnanimity.

Such moves of the US constitute an undisguised breach of the June 12 DPRK-US joint statement adopted on the basis of mutual trust and a flat denial of the Singapore agreement which evoked a great sensation worldwide.

We have so far tried hard to recognize the US as our dialogue partner, halted various actions that the US was concerned about, and taken all possible confidence-building measures, true to its commitment to stop military actions irritating and antagonizing the dialogue partner during the goodwill dialogue between the DPRK and the US. Thanks to our efforts, the successes that the US President termed his exploits at every opportunity could be possible.

We, in return for nothing, gave things the US President could brag about, but the US side has not yet taken any corresponding step. Only betrayal is what we feel from the US side.

The US persists in the trite and unreasonable mode after overturning even the official stand of its president to handle the "nuclear issue of north Korea" out of a new calculation method, thus raising higher the obstacles to the improvement of the DPRK-US relations and the abolition of hostile relations.

This year alone, it staged Key Resolve and Foal Eagle under a changed codename Alliance 19 in March and Ulji Freedom Guardian under a codename "drill for examining the wartime operation control transfer" in August. Whenever it had opportunities, it waged a series of dangerous hostile military actions in a disguised mode, including a special operation drill.

Such acts of perfidy of reciprocating the good faith with evil have already put the fate of DPRK-US relations on the verge of breakdown. Moreover, the US is mulling about the joint air drill targeting the DPRK, the dialogue partner, under such dangerous situation only to further aggravate the situation. It is our official stand that we can no longer remain an onlooker to such reckless acts of the US.

At present when one party backpedals on its commitments and unilaterally takes hostile steps, there is neither reason nor any excuse for the other party to keep itself bound to its commitments. What's more, there is no sufficient time left.

Now that the physical movement of threatening our sovereignty and the security environment is clearly seen, it is the full-fledged self-defensive right of a sovereign state to take countermeasures to contain it.

It is our intention and will to answer dialogue with dialogue and recourse to force in kind.

To look back on the past hours which we passed away with patience, we do not feel the need to exercise any more patience.

The US should ponder over what it can do during the short hours left.

It had better behave itself with prudence at the sensitive time when the situation on the Korean peninsula could go back to the starting point due to the US-south Korean joint military drills, the biggest factor in the repeated vicious cycle of the DPRK-US relations.

The US will have to meditate on what influence the "new way" we are compelled to take will have on its "future."

It will face greater threat before long and be forced to admit its blunders, suffering from troubles, if it does not do anything to change the trend of the present situation.