A spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea issued the following press statement titled "QUAD Should Stop Unilateral Coercive Act to Change the Present Position of the DPRK" on July 3:

Recently, the United States committed another grave political provocation denying the legitimate sovereign rights of our state and insisting on "denuclearization" with the QUAD foreign ministers' meeting as an occasion.

The US hegemonic act of interfering in the internal affairs of independent sovereign states, stirring up inter-camp confrontation and creating instability in the international relations by relying on exclusive minority groups such as QUAD, is acting as a major risk factor hindering peace and security in the region and the world.

The DPRK Foreign Ministry strongly denounces and rejects the US malicious act of clearly exposing its invariable hostile intention against the DPRK, wantonly encroaching upon the dignity and rights and interests of our state, and expresses serious concern over the negative consequences to be entailed by it.

It is none other than the United States which is attempting to unilaterally change the existing situation by force or coercive way in the Asia-Pacific region including the Korean peninsula.

Nothing can change the position of the DPRK as a nuclear weapons state which has been permanently fixed by the supreme law of the state and physically proved.

Preaching someone's "denuclearization" is, indeed, anachronistic, contradictory and, in fact, self-deceptive for the country concerned which has caused serious losses to global peace and security through its radical nuclear weapons modernization and illegal use of military force.

The US attempt to deny the present position of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea is not only the gravest violation of sovereignty but also a dangerous act of escalating tension which creates instability in the region and escalates the tension.

It is within the sovereignty peculiar to our state to take appropriate and reflective countermeasures of the self-defensive nature against such provocative military actions as the US moves to strengthen the multilateral military alliance threatening the security of the region and joint military drills with clear aggressive character.

We will never tolerate the attempt of the United States and its vassal forces to unilaterally change the position of the DPRK and the current situation on the Korean peninsula. We will continue to make responsible efforts to ensure peace in the region and the rest of the world, strictly based on the reality in which the US hostile policy toward the DPRK is becoming more undisguised.