The Institute for Disarmament and Peace of the Foreign Ministry of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea on March 24 made public the following press statement entitled "It is our inevitable option to further accelerate the self-defensive efforts to ensure the security interests of the country in the regional security environment getting instable day after day":

Despite the serious concern of the international community, the US and its vassal allies staged the large-scale joint military exercises Freedom Shield 2025 from March 10 to 20.

Freedom Shield, which has been certainly staged every year to destabilize the situation in the Korean peninsula, reached the highest level in its aggressive and offensive nature this year.

The Institute for Disarmament and Peace of the Foreign Ministry of the DPRK publishes this press statement to inform the international community of how dangerous, reckless and provocative the large-scale war exercises Freedom Shield staged by the US and the ROK under the pretext of "defensive" and "annual" rehearsal are and why the DPRK's efforts to deter the military moves of the enemy states are just.

Freedom Shield launched from the outset of the year in reality

It is a cross-sectional view to construe that the large-scale joint military exercises Freedom Shield of the US and the ROK started on March 10.

It is not an exaggeration to say that the US-Japan-ROK joint air drill with the involvement of a B-1B strategic bomber of the US Air Force in the sky over the Korean peninsula in January was a preliminary drill for Freedom Shield in reality.

The US has continuously staged various kinds of joint military drills with its satellites in the region, including the ROK, since the outset of the year, getting frantic with the creation of preliminary atmosphere for the full-scale operation of Freedom Shield.

From January to March, the US had successively staged such joint military drills under different names aimed at mastering war scenarios for striking the in-depth area of the DPRK as "Ssangmae drill", "combined arms live-firing drill", "joint search drill", "joint integrated firepower live-firing drill" and "joint special strike drill".

On January 15, it introduced a formation of B-1B strategic bombers into the sky over the Korean peninsula to conduct a joint air-to-ground live-firing drill with the ROK. On February 10, it made the attack nuclear submarine Alexandria call at the Pusan operational base and, on February 20, mobilized a B-1B strategic bomber formation again to conduct a provocative joint air drill.

In particular, on March 2, it committed a provocative military act of deploying in the region of the Korean peninsula a nuclear carrier strike group, which consists of the nuclear carrier Carl Vinson, Aegis cruiser Princeton, Aegis destroyer Sterett and others.

Four years have passed since the start of Freedom Shield, but the US strategic offensive means had never been deployed in the Korean peninsula in a sequential way and in succession on the eve of the exercises as seen above.

This proves that this year's Freedom Shield is a more premeditated and provocative nuclear war rehearsal staged by the US and its satellites on the basis of full examination of their war readiness.

Aggressive and offensive war drills from A to Z

The recent joint military exercises Freedom Shield were conducted in a multi-domain space, including ground, sea, air, cyber and outer space in an all-round way for the first time in the history of joint drills staged by the US and the ROK. And the number of brigade-level field mobile drills increased six times more than the last year's as it was 16, the biggest in history.

The US involved in the joint military exercises a lot of aggression forces and military hardware, including the US Eighth Army, the US Seventh Air Force, the US Space Force, the US Seventh Fleet and the Third Expedition and the First Division of the US marines.

During the joint military exercises, the US and the ROK staged such provocative military drills aimed at attack on a belligerent party as the joint air strike drill of paratroops, the mountain warfare drill of marine troops, the drills of special warfare troops for special reconnaissance of enemy's interior and strike at enemy's core facilities and the drills of armoured troops for breaking through enemy's defence line and occupying major bases.

What should not be overlooked is that OPLAN 2022, a war scenario under the simulated conditions of "a preemptive strike" at the DPRK's nuclear facilities worked out according to the "nuclear operations guidelines" cooked up by the US and the ROK in July last year, was officially applied to the recent joint military exercises.

A typical example is that the US and ROK military gangsters staged a joint special warfare drill for "destroying someone's secret underground tunnel network" and "removing nuclear weapons" by mobilizing armoured and special warfare forces, reconnaissance drones and artificial intelligence attack robots from March 17 to 20.

In particular, the US conducted a US-Japan-ROK joint naval drill with the nuclear carrier Carl Vinson task force involved in the waters off the Korean peninsula, timed to coincide with the joint military exercises Freedom Shield.

Lurking behind the war drills the US staged together with its satellites by mobilizing large-scale marine troops including the nuclear carrier is its sinister design to link Freedom Shield with the tripartite joint naval drill and expand the scope of the US-ROK joint military exercises into the US-Japan-ROK joint military exercises in future.

As seen above, this year's Freedom Shield revealed its offensive nature as a US-Japan-ROK joint military rehearsal and as a multinational war drill involving even the troops from twelve member states of the "UN Command".

The threatening nature of Freedom Shield, which is being turned into a more expanded and offensive anti-DPRK war rehearsal, fully proves that the enemy states' military attempt to contain the DPRK by upper-hand in hegemonic strength has developed into a more dangerous level.

Inevitable choice by DPRK to defend regional and global peace

Shortly ago, international affairs analysts said that the US-ROK joint military rehearsal Freedom Shield more clearly shows its aggressive nature of targeting not only the DPRK but also other countries in the region, adding that this is part of the US world strategy for securing military domination over the Asia-Pacific region.

Such comments hint that the Freedom Shield and other various joint military drills staged by the US and its satellites in and around the Korean peninsula are becoming the core means for carrying out Washington's strategy for hegemony to contain not only the DPRK but also strategic rivals in the region and that the US war drills will be further expanded in the future.

The continuity of military drills for aggression in the Korean peninsula, where the belligerents are in acute confrontation and which is under mature condition in which an accidental spark may develop into a destructive armed conflict, is driving the regional situation into an uncontrollable state no one can predict.

The fact that pro-US countries including NATO member states have joined the US-led joint military drills including Freedom Shield, pursuant to the US policy of hostility toward the DPRK, predicts that a military conflict in the Korean peninsula will be by no means limited between the DPRK and the US, but it will inevitably lead to the start of a new world war.

The case of accidental attack by fighters of the ROK near the southern border of the DPRK on the eve of the recent Freedom Shield served as a vivid occasion for the international community to imagine the disastrous consequences to be entailed by the war exercises being staged by the US and the ROK under the signboard of "defensive" and "annual".

It is an inevitable option of the DPRK to make more self-defensive efforts to ensure its security interests in the regional security environment which is getting instable with each passing day.

The absolute value of defending the sovereignty and stability is to provide the most powerful war deterrent capable of always preemptively containing the military provocations of the enemy states and definitely steering the situation.

The genuine defence capability precisely means the powerful offensive capability and it is the most confident guarantee for preventing a war and effectively deterring and controlling any threat and blackmail of the aggressors to acquire the formidable offensive capabilities no one can stop, the overwhelming striking capabilities.

The DPRK will steadily upgrade and bolster up its strong counteraction capability of all categories, able to overwhelmingly contain any military moves of the enemy states seriously threatening its sovereignty and security interests, and reliably defend peace and security in the region and the rest of the world as a responsible nuclear weapons state.