Vice-Foreign Minister Ri Thae Song gave a statement to media on the 23rd.

The statement reads:

The issue of declaring the termination of cease-fire on the Korean peninsula is raised again at the 76th UN General Assembly.

The declaration of cease-fire termination has a symbolic meaning as regards the political declaration of opening to the public the end of the cease-fire on the Korean peninsula which has been lasting for a long time.

And it is clear that declaring the cease-fire termination is an issue to be passed once on the road of establishing a peace mechanism in the future.

Nothing is more desirable than that peace settles on the Korean peninsula only with the ceremony held by those concerned, taking pictures of the declaration of cease-fire termination without any legal binding force.

But the present reality raises the issue that it is premature to adopt the declaration of cease-fire termination.

It is well-known to the world that the test-firing of the "Minuteman-3" intercontinental ballistic missiles at the Bundenberg Air Base in California State of the US mainland in February and August this year, the declaration of the termination of the US-south Korea missile instructions made public like lightning in May and the approval of selling arms and equipment worth billions of US dollars to Japan and south Korea are all aimed at us.

We are watching with vigilance that the United States decided to transfer the nuclear-powered submarine building technology to Australia some time ago.

There is no any guarantee that the declaration of cease-fire termination, which is no more than a sheet of paper, will lead to revocation of hostility toward us when the situation of the Korean peninsula is going to a hair-trigger situation.

It is not an accident that there is an estimation on a corner of the world that it seems difficult to start discussion on the declaration of cease-fire termination since the interests and calculation of all sides are different as regards it.

All the issues arising on the Korean peninsula are without exception based on the US hostile policy towards the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

The US forces and huge latest war assets which have been deployed or are under movement on the ground and sea, in the air and water in and around the Korean peninsula, and war exercises of different code names which are staged every year show that the US hostile policy towards the DPRK gets more vicious with each passing day.

The American-style double standard is also a product of the US hostile policy towards the DPRK, as it abuses our just measures of strengthening the defence capability coping with the US military threat to occupy us by force as "provocation" but beautifies the arms buildup of the United States and its satellite forces threatening us as "securing of deterrent force".

Nothing will be changed even if the termination of cease-fire is declared many a time as long as there is no change in the political environment around us and the hostile policy of the United States.

On the contrary, along with the strengthening of the US-south Korea alliance, the declaration of cease-fire termination will bring about only a tragic result of destroying the strategic balance of the region and plunging the north and south of Korea into an endless arms race.

What is clear is that the declaration of cease-fire termination is only a foolish idea as long as there remains the US hostile policy towards the DPRK, the greatest obstacle to the end of cease-fire, though it is declared.

All facts prove that it is not the time to declare the termination of cease-fire yet.

It is necessary to see correctly that the declaration of cease-fire termination is not helpful to stabilizing the situation of the Korean peninsula at all at the present moment and it may be misused as a smoke screen to cover up the hostile policy of the United States.

We have already made clear our official stand that the declaration of cease-fire termination is not a "gift" for anybody and it may be turned into a scrap of paper in an instant according to the change of situation.

The double standard of the United States and the withdrawal of its hostile policy should be put on the top-priority order in stabilizing the situation of the Korean peninsula and ensuring its peace.