The deputy general director of the General Armaments Bureau of the Ministry of National Defence of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea issued the following press statement on April 1 under the title "The new 'co-produced weapon' of the US-Japan military alliance predicts that the security environment of the region will grow unstabler":

The US-Japan alliance called a key axis of the US-led military alliance system in the Asia-Pacific region is taking on a fresh appearance, giving repeated signals of instability to the surrounding countries and the regional community.

A typical example is that the US and Japan formally agreed to co-produce the latest air-to-air missile AIM-120, with the recent visit of the US secretary of Defense to Japan as an occasion.

What is serious is that it can never be accepted only as the production of weapons for fighters aimed at defending airspace and securing the air supremacy. The danger of it is further highlighted in the light of the special character of the geopolitical and military security environment in Northeast Asia.

All types of main fighters, involved in the US-Japan and US-Japan-ROK joint aerial drills that we have frequently witnessed in the sky over the area near the Korean peninsula and further in the sky over the East Sea and South Sea of China, can carry the AIM-120 with a range of more than 160 km.

In view of the military doctrine of the US Air Force which specifies that the air supremacy should be secured through massive introduction and use of the ultra-modern long-range air weapons such as AIM-120, the anti-aircraft system of enemy states be neutralized through preemptive strike and then strategic bombers be sent to deal a heavy blow to the strategic depth of the opponents, AIM-120 is now becoming another "co-produced weapon" of the US-Japan military alliance, which is turning offensive and aggressive from A to Z.

The joint production of ultra-modern weapons pursued by the US and Japan is adding new element of strategic instability to the Asia-Pacific region, bringing ominous dark clouds.

The US has connived at and encouraged Japan's moves to become a military giant since last century. Recently, it has sharply expanded the application range of the US-Japan security treaty, which was limited to "contingency in Japan", to space and cyber fields, to say nothing of "contingencies in the areas surrounding Japan". It has also actively backed Japan's possession of "counterattack capability" and unhesitatingly offered such long-range attack means as Tomahawk cruise missile.

At a time when the US and Japan are seeking to integrate the existing military operation control system through the US military reorganization in Japan and the establishment of the "integrated operation command" and to steadily get it closer to the wartime environment, their cooperation in the field of munitions industry is being accelerated in direct proportion to it. It is not a secret that such moves are aimed at militarily deterring the regional countries.

Certainly, the centre of gravity of the US’ hegemony-oriented military security strategy is changing and it is a new warning signal for the Asia-Pacific regional community including the countries in Northeast Asia.

A force without justice is a tyranny and justice without a force is meaningless.

It will be a priority task of the DPRK in the future, too, to bolster up its powerful deterrent capable of actively coping with the unstable strategic environment being created around the DPRK by the US and its followers and leaving its enemy states with no other choice but to give up their political and military ambition.

The DPRK's efforts to apply the most appropriate solution for controlling and managing the military tension in the region will continue, and Washington’s and its servants' attempt to hold military hegemony will never be allowed.

KCNA