Pyongyang, May 19 (KCNA) -- The situation on the Korean Peninsula is closing in on the brink of explosion.

After staging the longest-ever joint military exercises Freedom Shield and the largest-ever Ssangyong combined landing drills, the U.S. imperialists and the south Korean puppet warmongers continue to stage anti-DPRK war exercises under different codenames, seriously disturbing peace and security of the Korean Peninsula and the region.

On April 3, when the Ssangyong drill was going on, the nuclear carrier Nimitz and the Aegis destroyers Decatur and Wayne E. Meyer of the U.S. navy, the destroyer Umigiri of the Japan maritime "Self-Defense Force" and warships on different missions of the south Korean puppet navy were deployed in the East Sea of Korea to stage joint naval drill for getting familiar with sonar tracking, pursuit and destroying procedures under the simulated conditions of an "attack on a north Korea's submarine".

On April 5, they magnified their war drumbeats to the tune of "actualization of strengthened extended deterrence" by flying nuclear strategic bomber B-52H stationed in Guam and F-35A and F-35B stealth fighters into the sky above puppet south Korea. On April 14, nuclear strategic bomber B-52H was again involved in a joint air drill.

The war exercises simultaneously staged in the sky and seas from April 17 to April 28 with the involvement of large strategic assets were the largest-ever ones in the first half of this year, which further aggravated the situation on the Korean Peninsula and the region.

By deploying all types of air strike means huge enough to fight a war, the U.S. imperialists and the south Korean puppet forces staged so-called "combined joint formation drill." During the period, a combined naval drill was conducted on the East Sea of Korea with the involvement of the U.S. navy, Aegis destroyers Benfold and Athogo of the Japan maritime "Self-Defense Force" and Aegis destroyers of the south Korean puppet navy.

It was followed by a special high-altitude paratroopers drill involving the U.S. special operations command and the special warfare command of south Korean puppet army, a combined ground combat drill and mobile and live-shell firing drill of the puppet army. Such ceaseless war exercises pushed the situation on the Korean Peninsula to a more critical phase.

The U.S. imperialists and south Korean puppet forces' military racket to pressurize the DPRK have assumed more undisguised and dangerous nature under the signboard of "strengthening extended deterrence", occasioned by the publication of the "Washington Declaration".

Amid the frequent joint drills under the simulated conditions of surprise "infiltration" into the DPRK and "occupation" of it such as "emergency operation drill", "maritime counter special operations exercise" and "joint high-altitude airborne infiltration drill", strategic bombers being loaded with long-range air-to-ground missiles were unprecedentedly given media coverage to escalate nuclear threat and blackmail against the DPRK.

Traitor Yoon Suk Yeol and the south Korean puppet military gangsters are bluffing under the war scenario worked out by the U.S. imperialists.

On May 11 traitor Yoon, gripped by war fever, impudently clamored for "reinforcing proactive deterrence and response capability", "possessing overwhelming power for deterring the north in advance" and "securing the capabilities for spying on the whole area of the north and ultra-precision high-power strike", talking about "nuclear and missile threats from the north" to turn black into white.

The south Korean puppet chairman of the joint chiefs of staff gadded around frontline units of the puppet army like a dog to whip up extreme confrontation hysteria, calling for "annihilating the enemy and victoriously concluding operation" and "securing the capability and posture decisively contributing to battle victory."

What should not be overlooked is that the U.S. and the south Korean puppet warmongers have announced that they will stage five rounds of the largest-ever "combined joint fire annihilation drill" in Phochon of Kyonggi Province from May 25 to June 15.

The so-called "combined joint fire annihilation drill", a typical north-targeted war rehearsal to be conducted under the war scenario, in which the combined forces of the U.S. army and the south Korean puppet army take "punitive action" against the DPRK by using the latest weaponry in case a war breaks out on the Korean Peninsula, is a serial and extension of the anti-DPRK war exercises kicked off by the forces hostile toward the DPRK at the outset of this year.

What on earth is "fire drill"? "Exercise for annihilating" a nuclear power is just sheer bullshit, isn't it?

We cannot but take a more serious note of the fact that they are going to make gunfire in such dangerous war exercises which will last for more than 20 days frantically in an area only a few kilometers away from our front.

We are closely watching every military move of the hostile forces utterly destroying and imperiling the security environment of the Korean Peninsula and the region.

The hostile forces' farce of amending the "war guidelines", a sinister design to stifle the DPRK by force of arms, is another clear proof that their hysteria for provoking a war has reached the phase that can no longer be overlooked.

Choe Ju Hyon, an international security analyst of the DPRK, in an article titled "Expansion of the U.S.-led war drills of aggression is a trigger for driving the situation on the Korean peninsula to the point of explosion" commented that each country conducts military drills exercising its right to self-defence but there is no such military drill as the U.S. and its vassal forces' anti-DPRK war drills which continue all the year round, day after day and month after month, with the involvement of huge war hardware specifically targeted on a country. Witnessing such dreary situation prevailing on the Korean Peninsula, anyone with common sense and reason can easily notice who the arch criminal escalating tensions is and what the malignant factor of bringing the fiery clouds is, the article stressed.

World situation analysts also comment that the U.S. systematically escalates its various provocative moves against the DPRK, and Washington doggedly resorting to pressure and coercive methods is the root cause of the danger of a nuclear war brought by the escalation of tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

The situation clearly shows who seriously disturbs peace and security of the Korean Peninsula and the region.

The U.S. and the south Korean puppet warmongers are bound to face corresponding responses for their madcap nuclear war racket.

It is a legitimate right of a sovereign country to equip itself with more powerful self-defensive means in order to cope with the prevailing grave situation and prospective threats. -0-

www.kcna.kp (Juche112.5.19.)