The following statement was issued by the DPRK’s foreign ministry on 10 March 2025.
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The roaring sound of war machinery, full of hostility and mistrust, is being heard from the area over the southern border of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).
The USA is about to stage its large-scale joint military Freedom Shield 2025 exercises – an aggressive and confrontational war rehearsal – in collusion with the ‘Republic of Korea’ (ROK) military gangsters to heat up the atmosphere of the ceasefire region.
Despite the DPRK’s repeated warnings, the USA and the ROK persistently stage large-scale joint military exercises. This dangerous provocative act is leading to an acute situation on the Korean peninsula, in which a physical conflict could be sparked by means of a single accidental shot.
What should not be overlooked is that our enemies are scheming to apply their ‘OPlan 2022’, which aims to make a “preemptive attack” on the DPRK’s nuclear weapons facilities during the current exercises, as described in the “guidelines for nuclear deterrence and nuclear operations” cooked up and published in July 2024.
The USA’s military hysteria, which continues irrespective of the policy ambiguity inevitably brought about by regime change in Washington, clearly proves the inveterate hostility of the USA towards the DPRK, as expressed in endless sanctions, pressure and confrontation.
Lurking behind the above-said war exercises, regularly staged by the USA and the ROK, is the persistent and unchangeable aggressive ambition of the USA, which seeks to project American-style ‘values’ and Yankee-style ‘liberal democracy’ into the inviolable territory of a sovereign state, and finally to overthrow the DPRK government and its social system.
The long history of DPRK-US political and military confrontation makes clear the origin of this deep-rooted conflict and the gravity of the present situation. Owing to frantic US sabre-rattling, which has been directly aimed at the DPRK, the structures are closer than ever to the threshold of an explosion, and the likelihood of confrontation is developing at an ever more dangerous pace.
Should we regard various military drills staged by the USA at any time under such unctuous signboards as ‘annual’ and ‘defensive’ as rash muscle-flexing of those who are frightened by the DPRK’s strong defence capability – a capacity that is growing in direct proportion to the USA’s nuclear threats – or as a means t comfort and pacify its ROK stooges at a time of security unrest?
As compared with last year, the USA and the ROK have decided on a sharp increase in the number of brigade-level and above mobile field drills. They are simultaneously conducting a second-stage joint command and control drill of the USA’s ROK-based Space Force, which aims to verify the capabilities of space-based operational assistance in the region in case of a contingency on the Korean peninsula, and to experiment with the use of generative AI during the joint military exercises. All these facts show clearly the multi-domain and all-round offensive nature of Operation Freedom Shield.
Obviously, the USA intends to push the situation into an uncontrollable phase by relentlessly building Freedom Shield and other large-scale war drills in successive waves, thus perpetuating the vicious cycle of provocation and tension in the Korean peninsula and the region.
It is anachronistically seeking to gain an advantage in the Asia-Pacific region and to realise a geopolitical realignment by expanding its military alliance with its stooges into a comprehensive strategic alliance – all under the pretext of supposed ‘threats’.
Under this confrontation and hegemony-oriented line of the USA, strategic means including the nuclear submarine Alexandria, B-1B strategic bombers and the nuclear carrier Carl Vinson are being constantly deployed in the waters of the Korean peninsula, and reckless aerial espionage and all kinds of joint military exercises are being staged one after another. Such acts are increasing the legitimate security concerns not only of the DPRK but also of other countries in the region.
In the wake of the said exercises, various anti-DPRK war drills – including the one jointly sponsored by the US-ROK Allied Command and the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the ROK – are to be conducted more than 110 times, a 9.7 percent rise over last year. This shows clearly that the military confrontation hysteria of our enemies is a chronic problem, not a single outburst.
The increase in the visibility of US strategic assets on the Korean peninsula and in US-led bilateral and multilateral war rehearsals that look very much like actual war, demonstrate the need for the DPRK to be as thoroughgoing and overwhelming in deterring its enemies’ anti-DPRK nuclear war threats as possible.
The USA, which is overusing the toughest high-handed power politics in different parts of the world, has gradually stepped its physical manoeuvres on the Korean peninsula and in the region, claiming this to be a “demonstration of its alliance”. They may help to calm down the alienation of its stooges, but it must be pointed out that such moves can never add to the security of either the USA or its allies.
The reckless and unreasonable action of the USA in seeking to play the first solemn movement of a war symphony through its largest-ever military provocation will only undermine US security.
The DPRK has already expressed its determination to continue exercising strategic deterrence in the face of the USA’s continued military posturing.
The USA should be mindful that its habitually hostile policy, openly denying the DPRK’s legitimate existence and victorious advance, will only cause the DPRK to reaffirm its principle of tough anti-US counteraction, facing all the undesirable consequences and escalated security threats.
The trite ‘succession’ to the USA’s malicious anti-DPRK practice will inevitably lead to a serious strategic misjudgment. Lacking the ability to judge clearly, the USA faces a gloomy prospect.
The DPRK will redouble its responsible efforts to maintain a lasting peace on the Korean peninsula and throughout the region, relying on its own trustworthy strength that is underpinned by its rapidly developing nuclear power.
