The Disarmament and Peace Institute of the Foreign Ministry of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea made public the following press release titled “The US scheme to build a new missile defence system is a new ‘Star Wars’ plan seriously destroying the global security balance” on February 2:

The new US administration’s attempt to maintain its military supremacy and stifle independent and sovereign states through reckless arms buildup has been clearly manifested from the first day of its taking office.

A typical example is that the US has recently made public a plan to further expand the missile defence system, under the signboard of keeping the security of the mainland and its allies from the ever-increasing “strategic threats” of its so-called rivals.

The US’ new missile defence system plan sets a target for aggression to put spurs to the development and deployment of the next-generation missile defence network and space-based missile interception system capable of detecting and intercepting various kinds of missiles at the ascending stage and further strengthen the regional missile defence system in collusion with its allies.

The new missile defence system initiative, suggestive of the dangerous “Star Wars” scenario mapped out by the US in the Cold War era, is very dangerous as it justifies arms buildup under the pretext of coping with “threats” from its rivals, far from being feasible.

In the 1980s, the US invented a “Strategic Defence Initiative” under the pretext of coping with the nuclear threat from the former Soviet Union, driving the whole world into a nuclear arms race. In 2002 it unilaterally withdrew from the ABM treaty under the pretext of “security of the mainland” and made frantic efforts to build a missile defence system targeting independent and sovereign states including the DPRK.

Afterwards, the US has spent an astronomical amount of money for the development of next-generation interceptor missiles and ground-based intermediate-stage interceptor missiles. It deployed various missile defence systems in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region and has sought a sinister intention to operate them in an integrated way.

The present US administration’s attempt to modernize the missile defence system is also aimed at perfecting conditions for launching preemptive nuclear attack on the rivals without any worry about retaliatory attack by them and at turning outer space, a common wealth of mankind, into a war theatre and militarizing it and thus realizing the US military hegemony on a global scale.

The present US administration has called for further strengthening the regional missile defence system with the allies, talking about the threat of attack by nuclear-armed rivals. This indicates that the US moves for modernizing the missile defence system can be further intensified in the Asia-Pacific region where nuclear powers are concentrated.

It is as clear as noonday that the US will get more pronounced in its moves to accelerate the development of hypersonic interceptor missiles being pushed forward with its allies including Japan and deploy more ultra-modern military hardware like THAAD in various regions including the ROK. This will inevitably touch off the security concerns of the regional countries.

The ever-worsening global security environment urgently requires the DPRK to steadily develop its self-defensive capabilities with nuclear deterrent capable of reliably defending the security and development rights of the state as a pivot to cope with the ever-increasing US attempt to hold military hegemony.

The DPRK will as ever counter the ever-increasing military threat of the hostile forces with the bolstering of military muscle free from limitations and defend global peace and build a more stable regional security environment by dint of powerful self-defensive strength.

KCNA