THE EMBASSY OF THE DEMOCRATIC
PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF KOREA TO SWITZERLAND
Pourtalèsstrasse 43
3074 Muri/Bern Switzerland
No 51/26
1. U.S. and ROK's Reckless Arms Build-up Will Incite DPRK to Further Strength Military Deterrent: KCNA Commentary
2. First-stage Construction of Tanchon Power Station Completed in DPRK
U.S. and ROK's Reckless Arms Build-up Will Incite DPRK to Further Strength Military Deterrent: KCNA Commentary
Pyongyang, May 21 (KCNA) -- The U.S. has further boosted its arms sales to its vassal countries in the Korean peninsula and the Northeast Asian region, and this has emerged as a challenge to regional security that should no longer be overlooked.
Recently, the U.S. Department of State approved the sale of 24 MH-60Rs, new-type helicopters for maritime operation, and parts of AH-64E Apache helicopters to ROK in the amount of more than four billion US dollars, asserting that it would contribute to improving the ROK's ability for coping with the current and future threats and equipping it with creditable military capabilities strong enough to deter enemy.
This is a part of the U.S. arms sales and the ROK's ill-intended arms build-up, being pushed forward according to the agreement made at the U.S.-ROK summit held last October that specified the ROK's purchase of U.S.-made military equipment amounting to 25 billion US dollars until 2030.
In essence, through the arms sales the U.S. seeks to maximize its financial gains by taking advantage of the ROK's ever-increasing military spending, and at the same time, use the ROK as its armed shock brigade for materializing its strategic hegemony in the Asia-Pacific region.
Such unilateral arms build-up that goes beyond the defensive nature will only provoke the other party's corresponding measures for securing overwhelming military muscle.
With regard to it, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea answered to a question raised by KCNA, clarifying the stand that the massive U.S. arms exports to the ROK, Japan, Taiwan and other allies and partners in the Asia-Pacific region constitute a cause of ever-escalating regional military tensions including the Korean Peninsula and Taiwan Strait and predict the gloomy prospect of the regional situation.
The spokesman added that the gravity of such arms build-up and sales lies in the fact that they are going far beyond the ordinary defensive demands and being conducted in a specific way aimed at military attack on specific countries, strictly subject to the materialization of the U.S. strategy for securing military edge.
Today the ROK's irrational wild ambition for arms buildup is a typical product of the execution of the new military strategy by the present U.S. administration seeking to ensure the flexibility of military attack posture against the rival nations throughout the Asia-Pacific region.
Last year the U.S. pressurized NATO to make its European allies increase their military expenditure to 5 percent of their GDPs. Now it presses its Asian allies to follow it, pressing them to boost their military expenditure.
Under such pressure, the ROK agreed to increase its military spending to 3.5 percent of its GDP at an early date, buy U.S.-made weaponry costing 25 billion US dollars until 2030 and offer the U.S. 33 billion US dollars as the upkeep for the U.S. forces in the ROK. The ROK was termed "exemplary ally" in return.
The U.S. agreed to sell 624 GBU-39 long-range guided bombs to the ROK last December, hosted a contract between it and the Boeing Company for improving F-15Ks of the ROK air force in February and approved the sale of airborne communication security equipment amounting to 0.2 billion US dollars in March.
Meanwhile, the U.S. approved its sale of eight kinds of combat equipment including HIMARS, Javelin anti-tank missile, howitzer and suicide drone and relevant parts amounting to 11.1 billon US dollars to Taiwan last December. It also systematically transfers Tomahawk cruise missiles and other attack weapons to Japan.
Global security crises that break out in a chain go to prove that such transfer of latest lethal weaponry by the U.S., the world's biggest death merchant, cyclically causes ever-escalating regional military conflict and contradiction and ever-deepening unpredictability and ever-worsening instability.
Such arms buildup pursued by a belligerent party can never be overlooked by the other party and it is clear that the latter will take corresponding measures.
To thoroughly deter the imbalance of power enforced by the U.S. and its vassal forces and strongly cope it is a prerequisite to safeguarding national sovereign rights and ensuring regional peace and stability.
The defence power of the DPRK will strongly deter all security threats, posed by the enemy nations, through ceaseless update and evolution and full war readiness, creditably defend the national sovereignty and security and regional peace and proactively contribute to ensuring global strategic stability.
First-stage Construction of Tanchon Power Station Completed in DPRK
Pyongyang, May 20 (KCNA) -- The first-stage construction of the Tanchon Power Station, which is of great significance in the development of the country's electric power industry, has been successfully completed.
All the army-people builders excavated a waterway tunnel through rugged mountain ranges in the northern part of the country and built Tanchon power stations Nos. 1, 5 and 6 and two dams, thus laying another solid foundation for the economic development and the improvement of the people's standard of living.
The completion of such great power base is a striking demonstration of the inexhaustible potentials of the DPRK which is accelerating the overall development of Korean-style socialism with confidence in sure victory under the leadership of the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un.
A ceremony for inaugurating the first stage of the Tanchon Power Station took place on the spot on May 18.
Present there were Pak Thae Song, member of the Presidium of the Political Bureau of the C.C., Workers' Party of Korea, vice-president of the State Affairs Commission of the DPRK and premier of the Cabinet, and other senior Party and government officials, officials of the command team of the Tanchon Power Station Construction Division and relevant units, officials and working people in Hochon County, army-people builders and employees of the power station.
The national anthem of the DPRK was played.
Premier Pak Thae Song addressed the ceremony.
Noting that the waterway tunnel covering tens of kilometers has been excavated at the cost of blood and sweat for several years and the dams and power stations built by devoted efforts, wisdom and enthusiasm, the premier stressed that they prove the indomitable revolutionary spirit and strong fighting traits of the builders.
With the completion of the construction of Tanchon power stations Nos. 1, 5 and 6, a remarkable success was made in the development of largest-scale hydraulic resources for diverting the courses of several rivers and streams to the East Sea and valuable experience was accumulated to push forward the future construction of power stations with greater confidence, he said.
There were countless difficulties in the construction of power stations, but the outstanding idea and leadership of the respected Comrade General Secretary Kim Jong Un served as a source of tremendous strength to overcome all of them and bring about the changes, he noted.
Saying that a large elite force united with patriotism, the powerful conquerors of the nature, could be grown up under the warm love and affection shown by the great father for the builders having struggled with the nature for several years, he stressed that it is the most valuable and precious success achieved in the construction of the Tanchon Power Station.
He said that the edifices erected in the course of the first-stage construction of the Tanchon Power Station are a historic monument strikingly demonstrating the looks of the revolutionaries in our era and the spirit of the Koreans who are paving the road of prosperity by dint of their own efforts, remaining boundlessly loyal to the great patriotic ideas and the revolutionary leadership of the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un.
Expressing belief that all the builders would surely bring about the completion of the construction of the power station by more vigorously turning out with the high pride of recording a new brilliant page in the country's history of hydro-power station construction, he declared the completion of the first stage of the Tanchon Power Station.
The premier cut the inauguration tape.
Following the ceremony, an art performance was given to congratulate the builders of the power station and fireworks were displayed to add joy to the inauguration.
The participants went round the Tanchon power stations Nos. 1 and 5, dams and dwelling houses for employees.