/ Highlights
Press statement by Chief of Foreign News Section of Department of Press and Information of DPRK FM
  The Chief of the Foreign News Section of the Department of Press and Information of the Foreign Ministry of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea on Sunday issued a press statement titled "We Will Continue to Take Practical Measures to Cope with the Long-Term Nuclear Confrontation with the United States", which said:
  Recently the United States and the Republic of Korea held an "Extended Deterrence Strategy and Consultation Group" meeting and a "Nuclear Consultative Group simulation drill", revealing their intention to further strengthen the military conspiracy and nexus against the DPRK.
  They conducted a confrontation conspiracy based on the nuclear war scenario and a "simulation drill" as its practical step, terming the DPRK's legitimate and reasonable measure for bolstering up its self-defence capabilities a "threat". This fact clearly shows the danger of the US "extended deterrence strategy" to the global peace and security.
  The DPRK Foreign Ministry expresses serious concern over and bitterly denounces and rejects the reckless moves of the hostile forces that are disturbing the regional strategic stability and increasing the possibility of nuclear clash by openly attempting to make a nuclear attack on a sovereign state.
  The essential source of ever-worsening security environment in the Korean peninsula and the region at present is just the United States which is visualizing the nuclear threat to other sovereign countries while strengthening the military nexus with its vassal forces and cooking up the nuclear confrontation programmes one after another.
  This year alone, the United States revised its "nuclear weapons employment planning guidance" for the purpose of pursuing the unchallenged nuclear edge over other sovereign states. And it, together with the Republic of Korea, cooked up the "nuclear operations guidelines" and formulated that nuclear weapons are included in the "offer of extended deterrence" to Japan.
  The United States has also staged nuclear war drills in succession, including "Iron Mace" and "Ulji Freedom Shield", to practically verify the plan for using nukes, while never disguising the fact that the DPRK is the target of its application.
  It is a mockery of the DPRK and trickery against the international community that the United States, which is constantly working out and updating war manuals focused on preemptive nuclear strike at the DPRK, talks about "denuclearization" and "dialogue".
  The present situation, in which the United States is persistently resorting to the attempt for using nukes against a sovereign state under the pretext of "deterrence", underscores the need for the DPRK to possess more strategic and fatal nuclear deterrent capable of thoroughly defending its sovereignty and security interests and rapidly raising the capability of control over the regional security situation.
  The US nuclear threat and blackmail will be thoroughly deterred by the DPRK's more perfect and developed nuclear forces for self-defence.
  The DPRK will strictly control and manage the security situation of the Korean peninsula, which is getting ever more intense due to the nuclear war hysteria of the United States and its followers, and continue to take practical measures to cope with the long-term nuclear confrontation with the United States.