A spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea released on September 24 the following press statement "The signboard of 'maintaining peace and stability' can never be a lever for the US to justify its policy of inter-camp confrontation":

Recently, the US, with the QUAD summit meeting as an occasion, has perpetrated a grave political provocation of slandering the DPRK's exercise of its righteous and legitimate sovereign rights and inciting the atmosphere of collective pressure on the DPRK.

The White House is claiming that the meeting targets no specific nation, but the "joint statement" fabricated and made public this time shows that QUAD is nothing but a political and diplomatic tool serving the implementation of the US strategy for unipolar domination.

The Foreign Ministry of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea expresses serious concern over the fact that the US has become more brazen in its most hostile confrontational attempt while wantonly violating the DPRK's rights to sovereignty and development, and strongly denounces and rejects it.

Today, QUAD, an end product of the US Cold War mentality and policy of inter-camp confrontation, has become a dangerous factor that deepens mistrust and antagonism between countries in the Asia-Pacific region and causes international instability.

The US tried to cover up the confrontational colours of QUAD with such rhetoric as "tightened cooperation" with regard to climatic change, food security and public health but it is a well-known fact that its justification for existence and main subject are to establish a US-led "rules-based international order."

This time the US turned QUAD into a de facto international "maritime police organization" under the pretext of "freedom of navigation", terming sovereign countries' exercise of legitimate rights "threats." This clearly proves that the entity is just an appendage of Washington's Indo-Pacific strategy.

The current US administration further sticks to the anachronistic "minority" politics but it only proves that its high-handed and arbitrary practices no longer work in the international arena and its diplomatic space is narrowing.

The US policy of fomenting inter-camp confrontation that challenges justice and goes against the trend of the times is a harmful root cause of posing the most serious threat to world peace and security.

The DPRK will never tolerate any hostile acts of encroaching upon its national sovereign rights, security and interests but as ever make responsible efforts to establish a multi-polarized international order based on independence and justice.

KCNA