Press Statement of Minister of National Defence of DPRK

Pyongyang, September 7 (KCNA) -- Kim Song Gi, minister of National Defence of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, issued the following press statement on Monday.

The U.S., Japan and the ROK are staging Freedom Edge, the provocative tripartite multi-domain joint military exercises, under the pretext of countering the so-called "nuclear and missile threats" from the DPRK again.

Timed to coincide with this, the U.S. military is planning to stage Orient Shield, the largest-ever joint military drills with Japan and Australia, from September 8 to 24 and to deploy the Strategic Mid-range Fires System Typhon with the regional countries in the striking range during the drills.

Moreover, the U.S. is trying to bring into the ROK the U.S. Army multi-domain mobile task force, a special unit formed with the aim of militarily controlling the neighboring countries within the first island chain in the Asia-Pacific region, within this year.

The U.S.-led war demonstrations are being staged one after another without any gap in time and space under the situation that the U.S.-Japan-ROK tripartite military cooperation system is being transformed into a dangerous offensive entity accompanied by nuclear elements. Such reality is a crucial security threat pushing the instability on the Korean peninsula and beyond the region to the limit.

If the U.S. and its allies attempt to provoke a new military confrontation with the DPRK, the latter will take strong and reflective countermeasures from the standpoint of power.

The most proper way to strongly control the daily-growing danger of fierce conflict and thoroughly defend the sovereignty and security interests of the state is to constantly apply the evolved new force.

It is the consistent principle of military activities of the armed forces of the DPRK not to hesitate in the least to fulfill its constitutional duty to deter the hostile sources threatening national security and punish the provocateurs.

I sound a note of warning against the reckless military moves of the U.S. and its satellite countries to create a serious military confrontation and possibility of conflict on the Korean peninsula, and solemnly warn of the consequences to be entailed by them.

If necessary, we will express our will and ability to respond to the enemies' moves with more powerful and resolute action practice. -0-