Kim Yo Jong, Deputy Department Director of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, issued a press statement on the 10th.

The press statement said.

Despite the unanimous denunciation and rejection of the public at home and abroad, the United States and the south Korean army eventually started the joint military exercises further accelerating the instability of the situation.

The current joint military exercises are to be held, divided into the "staff drill for crisis control" between the 10th and the 13th and the "joint command post drill" between the 16th and the 26th. They are the most intensive expression of the US hostile policy towards the DPRK aimed at stifling our state by force of arms; they are an undesirable self-destructive act which must be paid for sure as they threaten the security of the Korean people and further jeopardize the situation of the Korean peninsula.

The dangerous war exercises of the United States and south Korea which are staged despite our repeated warning will surely make themselves face a more serious threat to security.

The aggressive character of the current joint military exercises is that they are a war rehearsal and preliminary exercises for nuclear war to further perfect the preparations for carrying out the operational plans whose keynote is a preemptive attack on the DPRK, in whatever scale or form they may be staged.

In March and August every year military tension and danger of conflict increase in and around the Korean peninsula owing to the war frenzy of the United States and south Korea.

The United States persistently staged the aggressive war exercises just at such an acute time as now when the international attention is focussed on the development of situation of the Korean peninsula. It is the disturber of the regional peace and stability. And the "diplomatic engagement" and "dialogue without precondition" loudly talked about by the present US Administration are no more than a hypocrisy to cover up its aggressive nature.

The prevailing situation proves once again that it was quite right that we have dynamically developed our national defence capability.

If peace is to be settled on the Korean peninsula, the United States must withdraw its aggressor forces and hardware from south Korea first of all.

As long as the US forces are stationed in south Korea, the root cause of periodically worsening the situation of the Korean peninsula will never be removed.

The reality proves that not words but only practical deterrence can ensure peace and security of the Korean peninsula and it is a vital demand for us to store the strength capable of powerfully containing the threat to us from outside.

We have already made clear that we will approach the United States on the principle of power for power and goodwill for goodwill.

We will put greater spurs to further strengthening the absolute deterrence to cope with the daily-increasing military threat of the United States, that is, our national defence capability and powerful ability for preemptive attack capable of promptly coping with any military actions against us.

Availing myself of this opportunity, I express strong regret for the perfidious behaviour of the south Korean authorities.

I release this article upon authorization.