Following is the full text of an article “Provocation to regional peace and stability can never be tolerated” issued by a military commentator of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea on May 17:

On May 16, the US military sent F-22 stealth fighters deployed in Hawaii to the Korean peninsula and staged a “simulated air battle” with the Republic of Korea for the first time.

Two F-22 stealth fighters of the US air force and two F-35A stealth fighters of the ROK air force, involved in the drill, exchanged the roles of attack and defence with each other. Media of the enemy claim that the drill demonstrated the powerful “deterrent” to the DPRK.

Without any explanation, we are well aware of why stealth fighters boasting of the “world’s strongest” flew.

The “revisit” of F-22 stealth fighters to the Korean peninsula only after seven months and their first “simulated air battle” are another clear proof of the hostile nature of the US which has persistently encroached upon regional countries’ rights to security while seeking the showdown of force with the DPRK.

The military gangsters of the ROK are now driving the military tension on the Korean peninsula to the extremes, keeping pace with their master’s anti-DPRK confrontation scheme.

In May alone, the ROK staged the largest-ever drill, allegedly to cope with the DPRK’s “air infiltration,” by mobilizing the ground, naval and air forces, along with “2024 simultaneous joint drill of military corps” and “joint drill for defending islands in the first half of the year” near the border of the DPRK.

It also plans to stage a large-scale air drill involving more than 60 fighters such as F-35A and F-15K from May 17 to 24 and hold talks of special operation commanders with the US at the end of this month to discuss a “beheading operation.”

All the facts remind us once again that the strengthened military alliance and deployment of strategic assets by the US are the root causes of the escalating military tension and uncertainties in the region.

The deployment of F-22 will only precipitate the advent of a situation that the US does not want to see, rather than the military effect it seeks.

The more frequent “visits” the gatecrasher from across the ocean makes, the more epochal occasions will occur to help the DPRK step up its war readiness, and the accumulation of such occasions will lead to a new strategic phase that the US is afraid of and has to be frightened.

It would be an unwise behaviour to neglect the bolstering of the force capable of neutralizing the military effect of the US deployment of strategic assets and annihilating the source of provocation and the commanding forces in case of emergency, even though it is hard to completely contain such deployment to be continued in the future.

The military provocations of the US and the ROK against the DPRK will never escape frustration due to the powerful practical counteraction of the DPRK for defending the national security and regional peace.

KCNA