Korean peninsula at the brink of nuclear war due to US actions: DPRK
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The DPRK will continue to pursue an agenda of expanding its self-defense capabilities as long as the US continues its provocations.
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In this photo provided by the North Korean government, what it says are intercontinental ballistic missiles are displayed during a military parade to mark the 75th founding anniversary of North Korea's army at Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang, North Korea, Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2023 (AP)
The DPRK's foreign ministry’s Institute for American Studies warned in a report on Monday that the Korean peninsula is to "the brink of a nuclear war" amid provocations on the part of the US and South Korea.
"...bellicose moves of the US have pushed the military tensions on the Korean peninsula and in Northeast Asia already plunged into an extremely unstable situation closer to the brink of a nuclear war," the report, released by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), says, as quoted by the South Korean Yonhap news agency.
The report also states that the US has been increasingly posing a serious threat to the DPRK's national security and sovereignty, noting that Pyongyang can no longer tolerate it.
It further condemns the US and South Korea for their "delusional anti-communist military confrontation" and "rhetorical threats," warning that a war in the peninsula would "rapidly expand into a world war and a thermonuclear war unprecedented in the world," causing "the most catastrophic and irreversible consequences."
The DPRK will continue to pursue an agenda of expanding its self-defense capabilities as long as the US continues its provocations, the report concludes.
Read more: US deploying nuclear-powered submarine in S. Korea raises tensions
The US and South Korea have been conducting joint military exercises in the Peninsula for decades but in recent years they have increased the scale of their drills, simulating large-scale bombing against the DPRK. Pyongyang has condemned the allies’ combined exercises as invasion rehearsals.
In celebration of the 70th anniversary of the US-South Korean alliance, the two sides have held their largest-ever joint live-fire drills in five stages since the end of May. The drills also come on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the founding of the South Korean armed forces.
Over 2,500 South Korean and US military personnel and more than 610 units of military equipment took part in the drills.
The exercises, as stated by both parties, are intended at working out possible scenarios for responding to DPRK's "provocations."
Read more: DPRK slams S. Korea, US for holding provocative military drills
