The 19 th Asian Security Summit was recently held in Singapore. It is said that the defense authorities from the U.S., Japan and south Korea, at the summit, have denounced as a “threat” our measures to bolster up national defense capabilities. They also have committed themselves to making a detailed plan and conducting at the earliest convenience trilateral missile warning and ballistic missile search and tracking exercise, and to taking follow-up measures.

The world knows well that peace and security in the region have been exposed to serious threats due to the joint military exercises conducted annually by the U.S. and its vassal forces including Japan and south Korea on the Korean peninsula and in the region.

Since its first joint military exercise with south Korea - “Focus Lens” - in 1954, the U.S. has ceaselessly conducted all kinds of war drills so far, to include “Team Spirit” and “Ulji Focus Lens”, “RSOI” (“Reception, Staging, Onward movement, and Integration”), “Key Resolve”, “Foal Eagle”, “Ulji Freedom Guardian”, etc.

The frequency of the exercises far exceeds that of any other war exercises conducted by the U.S. in other regions. Their scale is also huge as they mobilize strategic nuclear triad such as nuclear aircraft carriers, nuclear submarines and nuclear strategic bomber.

The nature of the exercises is very aggressive and provocative as it involves “decapitation operation”, “tweezers operation”, “invasion of Pyongyang”, etc.

In the meantime, the U.S. has converted Japanese islands into America’s arsenal and concentrated enormous nuclear assets there. On the other hand, it is seriously threatening the peace and security not only on the Korean peninsula but also in the region of north East Asia by conducting joint military exercises with Japan, which is dreaming of “Great East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere”, sharpening its sword of reinvasion.

This year alone, the U.S. brought strategic assets such as nuclear aircraft carriers “Ronald Regan”, “Abraham Lincoln” and strategic bomber “B-1B” in the vicinity of the Korean peninsula under the pretext of coping with our “threat of ballistic missile”, and conducted rounds of ground and air joint military exercises with Japan and south Korea, thus escalating tension on the Korean peninsula.

The U.S. persists in its denouncing the DPRK as a “threat” and is pushing ahead with the U.S.-Japan-south Korea tripartite joint military exercises. Its ulterior purpose is to form, by all possible means, a tripartite military alliance to realize its Indo-Pacific strategy.

Of late, the U.S. has been persistent in its scheme to drag Japan and south Korea into “Five Eyes”, an alliance of secret intelligence services. In the meantime, it has been planning to enhance its military cooperation between Japan and south Korea and urging NATO to be involved in the Indo-Pacific region. The above-mentioned facts show that the scheme to create an “Asian version of NATO” through a tripartite military alliance between the U.S., Japan and south Korea has already reached a working stage.

Grave situation is being created on the Korean peninsula due to the U.S. and its followers who are conducting reckless aggression war exercises. And it is becoming all the more vital for our state to bolster in every way the national defense capabilities and preemptive strike capabilities so that we can rapidly respond to any kind of military provocations.

On the principles of power for power and head-on contest, we will smash into pieces the reckless military maneuvers of the U.S. and its followers.

Kim Yong Guk

President of the Institute for Disarmament and Peace of the DPRK