Pyongyang, February 24 (KCNA) -- Kwon Jong Gun, director general of the Department of U.S. Affairs of the Foreign Ministry of the DPRK, issued the following press statement on Friday:

The U.S. and its followers held an open meeting of the UN Security Council on February 20, at which they again took issue with the DPRK over its exercise of the right to self-defence.

We are very displeased with the fact that they put a sovereign state's legitimate right to self-defence on the agenda of the UNSC, and strongly protest and denounce them.

If the UNSC has a true intention to contribute to peace and security in the Korean peninsula, it will have to bitterly condemn the U.S. and south Korea for their moves of escalating military tension such as frequent deployment of strategic assets and large-scale joint military drills against the DPRK.

The U.S. and south Korea are planning a visit to a U.S. nuclear submarine base in the wake of staging a "drill for operating extended deterrence means", a nuclear war demonstration against the DPRK, at Pentagon. This clearly proves to what extent their scheme to confront with the DPRK has reached.

If the UNSC, the duty of which is to ensure global peace and security, is turned into a theatre of rowdyism where injustice and illegality judge justice and legitimacy as now at the beck and call of the U.S. and its vassal forces, it will only result in further escalated military tension in the Korean peninsula.

Against this backdrop, the U.S. representative at the UN contended that they would again push forward the adoption of a "presidential statement" critical of the DPRK's ICBM launching drill at the UN Security Council. It is a clear encroachment on the DPRK's right to self-defence.

This clearly proves that the UNSC has been reduced to a tool of the U.S. for putting pressure on the DPRK.

The U.S., posing a constant threat to the security environment in the Korean peninsula and the region, has unilaterally denied the DPRK's right to self-defence while working hard to strengthen the alliance with its followers. This is an open disregard and unpardonable challenge to the DPRK.

The right to self-defence precisely means sovereignty.

Since the U.S. persistently seeks to deprive the DPRK of the right to self-defence by putting the UNSC into limelight, the DPRK will never remain a passive onlooker to such attempt.

The only way for preventing the vicious cycle of military tension in the Korean peninsula and its surroundings is for the U.S. to show a clear and practical stand such as the abandonment of its commitment to deploying strategic assets in south Korea and the halt to various kinds of combined drills against the DPRK.

The U.S. should be mindful that if it persists in its hostile and provocative practices against the DPRK, despite the latter's repeated protest and warning, it can be regarded as a declaration of war against the DPRK.

The U.S. should perceive intuitively and accept the consequences to be entailed by it, as a matter of course.

Availing ourselves of this opportunity, we remind the UNSC once again of our stand that if it puts the DPRK's right to self-defence on the table again, being led by the U.S., the corresponding strong countermeasure will be taken. -0-

www.kcna.kp (Juche112.2.24.)