Pyongyang, October 23 (KCNA) -- Pak Myong Ho, vice-minister of Foreign Affairs of the DPRK, on Oct. 22 made the following press statement:

Recently, the U.S. is building up military tension by inciting independence of Taiwan, which is an inseparable territory of China.

This year alone, the U.S. dispatched all kinds of battleships into the Taiwan Straits on the plea of "freedom of navigation" whenever occasion called. Some time ago, it even mobilized a battleship of its ally only to escalate tension in the Taiwan Straits.

The U.S. announced its plan for arms sale to Taiwan worth 750 million US$ by putting forth the unlawful "Taiwan Relations Act", and it is staging large-scale joint military exercise in the waters near Taiwan. Like this, it is increasing all the more its military threats against China.

It is an open secret that the members of the U.S. special forces and the detachment from U.S. Marine Corps have trained the Taiwanese army while stationing in Taiwan for more than one year.

This is an actual proof that the U.S. is using Taiwan as a tool to put pressure on China and an outpost to overpower China in an emergency though it outwardly maintains "One China" policy.

Taiwan is an integral part of China. The Taiwan issue, from A to Z, belongs to the internal affairs of China.

The U.S. acts constitute a naked interference in the internal affairs of the People's Republic of China (PRC) and cause a grave threat to the international peace and stability.

It is too natural and just demand that the Chinese government has, on several occasions, called for the U.S. to be as good as its word in abiding by the "One China" principle as well as a solemn commitment it made to China, not to have any kind of government-level exchanges with Taiwan, not to send a wrong signal to the separatist forces of Taiwan and to refrain from any action which aggravates the situation of the Taiwan Straits.

We fully support the Chinese government and people in their stand to defend the national sovereignty and territorial integrity and to realize the unification of the motherland without fail.

The situation of Taiwan is, on no account, irrelevant to the situation of the Korean peninsula.

The indiscreet meddling by the U.S. into the issue of Taiwan entails a potential danger of touching off a delicate situation on the Korean peninsula.

It is a well-known fact that the U.S. troops and its military bases in south Korea are in use to put pressure on China and that the huge forces of the U.S. and its satellite states, which are being concentrated near Taiwan, can be committed to a military operation targeting the DPRK at any time.

The hostile forces are already speeding up the deployment of their forces from all directions which are aimed at our country and China while making lame assertion, like a guilty party filing the suit first, that the DPRK and PRC can, in cooperation, cause military tension in Taiwan and on the Korean peninsula. This reality proves that the U.S. is in its bid to stifle our country and China, both socialist countries, in order to hold its supremacy.

The U.S. should bear in mind that its reckless interference in internal affairs, its attempt for division and an open act of double standard would only invite tragic consequences of lifting an ax to drop it on its own foot.

It is in correlation with the situation on the Korean peninsula that we would continue to watch the U.S. very closely in its stance to hold hegemony over the issue of Taiwan. -0-