The deputy general director of the General Armaments Bureau of the Ministry of National Defence of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea issued the following press statement on April 1 under the title "The new 'co-produced weapon' of the US-Japan military alliance signals the further unstable security environment of the region":

The US-Japan alliance styling itself a key axis of the US-led military alliance system in the Asia-Pacific region is taking on a fresh appearance to give repeated signals of instability to the surrounding countries and the regional society.

A typical example is that the US and Japan formally agreed to co-produce the latest air-to-air missile AIM-120, with the recent visit of the US Secretary of Defense to Japan as an occasion.

What is serious is that it can never be accepted only as the production of weapons for fighters aimed at defending airspace and securing the command of the air. The danger of it is further highlighted in the light of the peculiarities of the geopolitical and military security environment in Northeast Asia.

All types of main fighters, involved in the US-Japan and US-Japan-ROK three party joint aerial drills that we have frequently witnessed in the sky near the Korean peninsula and further in the sky above the East and South China Seas, can carry the AIM-120 with a range of more than 160 km.

In view of the military doctrine of the US Air Force which specified that the command of the air should be secured through massive introduction and use of the ultra-modern long-range air weapons such as AIM-120, the anti-aircraft system of enemy states be neutralized through preemptive strike and then strategic bombers be sent to deal a heavy blow to the strategic depth of those states, AIM-120 is now becoming another "co-produced weapon" of the US-Japan military alliance, which is turning into an attack-oriented and aggressive one from A to Z.

The joint production of ultra-modern weapons pursued by the US and Japan is adding a new element of strategic instability to the Asia-Pacific region, bringing ominous dark clouds.

The US has connived at and encouraged Japan's moves toward a military giant since last century. It has sharply expanded the application range of the US-Japan security treaty, which was limited to "contingency in Japan", to space and cyber fields, to say nothing of "contingencies in areas surrounding Japan", in recent years. It has also actively backed Japan's possession of "counterattack capability" and unhesitatingly offered long-range attack means such as Tomahawk cruise missile.

At a time when the US and Japan are seeking to integrate the existing military operation control system through the US military reorganization in Japan and the establishment of the "integrated operation command" and to steadily come closer to the wartime environment, their cooperation in the field of munitions industry is being accelerated in direct proportion to it. It is not a secret that such moves are aimed at militarily deterring the regional countries.

Certainly, the centre of gravity of the US hegemony-oriented military security strategy is changing and it is a new warning signal for the Asia-Pacific regional society including the countries in Northeast Asia.

Force unaccompanied by justice is a tyranny and justice unaccompanied by force is meaningless.

It will be a priority task of the DPRK in the future, too, to actively cope with the unstable strategic environment being created around the DPRK by the US and its followers and to bolster up the powerful deterrent capable of making enemy states have no other choice but to give up their political and military ambition.

The DPRK's efforts to apply the most appropriate solution to control and manage the military tension in the region will continue, and Washington’s and its servants' attempt to hold military hegemony will never be allowed.