The spokesman for the Ministry of National Defence (MND) of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) issued the following statement on the 30th.

Recently, owing to the provocative rampage of the adversary countries aimed at raising the level of war preparation against the DPRK, the military tension in the Korean Peninsula region is running higher than ever before.

While large-scale outdoor manoeuvre war exercises are being frantically staged day after day across the territory of the Republic of Korea, the war-fevered military gangsters of the US and the Republic of Korea (ROK) have, since the 26th, mobilized vast air power to unleash the large-scale joint air exercise "Freedom Flag", which is provocative in nature and targets our state.

The fact that the US and the ROK have committed not only air force but also army, navy and marine corps fighter planes, early warning aircraft, aerial refuelling tankers and attack unmanned aerial vehicles clearly reveals the difference between the so-called "defensive character" of the exercise they vociferously claim and the military objective they actually pursue.

In particular, the fact that the US Marine Corps 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force, the advance guard of overseas aggression, has for the first time staged in the ROK the multi-domain reconnaissance training that had been conducted in Hawaii, and has openly boasted that its main purpose is to support the ROK's preemptive strike system against Korea, the "Kill Chain", plainly shows the gravity of the military intentions pursued by the adversary countries.

Amid the deliberate exacerbation of the DPRK-ROK border situation by the hanguks military gangsters, the military moves of the adversary countries, which are becoming more active at our doorstep, are increasing the danger of a sudden armed conflict pregnant with catastrophic consequences.

This clearly demonstrates that the root cause of the ever more precarious security environment in the region lies with none other than the US and the ROK, which seek superiority of strength through the expansion of the military alliance system and the forcible conduct of joint military exercises under all sorts of names.

The severe reality, in which an unignorable threat is being created to the security environment of the state by the ever more blatant practical-combat-oriented and preemptive-strike-type hostile military acts of the US and the ROK, demands the practical application of a stronger response capability to check and eliminate all forms of risk factors.

In the present situation, where the reckless show of force by the adversary countries has become routine, expecting that the regional situation will ease of itself with the passage of time is a complacent idea; it is the clear stand of our army that only a prepared response to potential new risk variables is a sure way to enhance the security index of the state.

Any hostile act approaching the security rights of the state becomes a legitimate object of the exercise of sovereignty by the armed forces of the Republic.

There is no limit to our choice for maintaining a powerful deterrence posture capable of effectively coping with all threats caused by the military manoeuvres of the US and its followers and for enhancing control over the Korean Peninsula and the regional situation.

The most clear-cut will to confront is bound to be met with the most clear-cut will to respond.

Our armed forces will thoroughly deter threats by strength and will act only in a manner the adversary countries can understand.

There is no veto in the sphere of the legitimate exercise of the right to self-defence by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.