The Institute for Disarmament and Peace of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea made public the following press statement titled "U.S. scheme to build a new missile defense system is a new 'Star Wars' plan seriously destroying the global security balance" on February 2:

The new U.S. administration's hegemonic attempt to maintain its military supremacy and stifle independent sovereign states through reckless arms buildup has been clearly manifested from day one.

A typical example is the recent U.S. publication of a plan to further expand the missile defense system under the cloak of ensuring the security of homeland and its allies from the increasing "strategic threats" from its so-called rivals.

The U.S. new missile defense system plan sets an aggressive target to accelerate the development and deployment of the next-generation missile defense network and space-based missile interception system capable of detecting and intercepting various kinds of missiles at the ascending stage and to further strengthen the regional missile defense system in collusion with its allies.

The dangerous nature of new missile defense system idea, which raises the specter of the perilous "Star Wars" scenario mapped out by the U.S. during the Cold War, lies in the fact that it justifies arms buildup under the pretext of coping with "threats" from its rivals, apart from its feasibility.

In the 1980s, the U.S. came up with the "Strategic Defense Initiative" under the pretext of coping with the nuclear threat from the former Soviet Union, driving the whole world into a fierce nuclear arms race. In 2002 it unilaterally withdrew from the ABM treaty under the pretext of "homeland security" and made frantic efforts to build a missile defense system targeting independent sovereign states including the DPRK.

The U.S. has continued to spend an astronomical amount of money for the development of next-generation interceptor missiles and ground-based midcourse interceptor missiles. It deployed various missile defense systems in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region and has sought a sinister intention for their integrated operation.

The current U.S. administration's attempt to modernize the missile defense system is also aimed at the perfection of the conditions for launching preemptive nuclear attack on its rivals without any worry about their retaliatory attack and turning the outer space, a common wealth of the whole mankind, into a war theatre and militarize it thus realizing the U.S. military hegemony on a global scale.

The current U.S. administration referred to further strengthening of the regional missile defense system with the allies while talking about the threat of attack by nuclear-armed rivals. This indicates that the U.S. moves for modernizing its missile defense system can be further intensified in the Asia-Pacific region where nuclear powers are concentrated.

It is as obvious that the U.S. 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 countries in the region.

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

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