The chief of the Information Office of the DPRK Ministry of National Defence on February 21 issued the following press statement entitled "We will counter the enemies' strategic threat with our strategic means":

Since the emergence of the Trump administration, the US and its vassal forces are getting evermore pronounced in their military provocations threatening the security environment of the DPRK.

On February 20, the US staged a provocative joint air drill with the ROK by dispatching B-1B strategic bomber into the sky over the Korean peninsula. Earlier, on February 19, it test-fired ICBM Minuteman-3 at the Vandenberg Space Force Base towards a target in the Pacific.

Such military muscle-flexing of the US clearly shows the invariable hegemony-seeking ambition of the present US administration to gain an overwhelming edge of strength through the maintenance and updating of military strength capable of mounting a nuclear attack on any country and region of the world without prior warning.

The provocative military moves the US has made in the vicinity of the DPRK in less than two months this year are a clear answer to the question from where the real threat heightening the world's concern over peace and security comes.

Since February 3, the US military has waged a provocative joint live firing drill with the ROK military gangsters, mobilizing thousands of troops and 150-odd pieces of military hardware of various missions in the area just 30km away from the southern border of the DPRK.

The US deployed a nuclear submarine in the Pusan operation base from February 10 to 15, and Bombardier BD-700 Global Express, the latest reconnaissance plane of a new generation which underwent a flight-test last year, in the ROK on February 13. It has also conducted air espionage activities over the DPRK's areas from February 15 by mobilizing various tactical and strategic reconnaissance planes including P-8A sea patrol plane and RC-135V.

The US is also mulling over staging the large-scale joint military exercise Freedom Shield, which includes seven rounds of more brigade-level joint field manoeuvres than that of last year, in March again in collusion with the ROK in order to push the military tension in the region to an extreme phase.

The typical Yankee-style arrogance and shameless and gangster-like double-standard logic of the US, which brands the DPRK's nuclear deterrent for self-defence as a means of injustice and places "legality" and "regularity" on its moves for bolstering up nuclear force for hegemony, can never work on the DPRK.

The DPRK's nuclear force is a means for legitimate self-defence to safeguard the national sovereignty and the security of the region. Its rapid and accelerated bolstering up is a realistic requirement for coping with the military threat from the US and its satellite countries which has grown more rampant recently.

The adventurist military moves of the US premised on the use of nuclear strike means in an actual war are getting brisk and the hostile forces' attempt at military confrontation is getting evermore undisguised. This reality clearly proves why the DPRK armed forces' building up of the capability to fight a war with nuclear deterrent as a pivot is a just and inevitable option.

The DPRK's solution to the military threat and challenge to the security being posed by the US is clear and consistent.

The DPRK will counter the strategic threat from the US and other enemies with strategic means and continue its responsible military activities to control and manage the unstable security environment on the Korean peninsula with powerful deterrent.