Korean missile launches are for self-defense

U.S. President Joe Biden said at his first major news conference that North Korea was a top foreign policy crisis for his administration, and that Washington would “respond accordingly” if Pyongyang continued to carry out missile tests. The tests came as a response to renewed war exercises being conducted by the U.S. and South Korea.

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), the socialist north, has condemned Biden’s recent remarks regarding missile tests conducted by Pyongyang, warning the U.S. that it may face “something that is not good” if the president continues to make similar “thoughtless remarks.”

The statement from Ri Pyong Chol, secretary of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea, notes that Biden is shedding light on his “deep-seated hostility” toward People’s Korea.

“The recent test-fire of new-type tactical guided missiles was an act tantamount to the exercise of the full-fledged right of a sovereign state for self-defense, as it was a process that had been undertaken to implement the goals of the policy on national defense science set forth by our Party and government to boost the defense capabilities of the country,” Ri explains.

Ri went on to state that Biden expressed a “gangster-like logic” by expecting the DPRK to not ensure its own security, as Washington gave the go-ahead to resume joint military exercises in the region.

“We are by no means developing weapons to draw someone’s attention or influence his policy. If the war exercise staged by the U.S. right next to its belligerent party across the ocean is for ‘defense,’ we have the full-fledged right to self-defense to contain the former’s military threat on its mainland,” Ri continued.

“The new U.S. administration obviously took its first wrong step. If the U.S. continues with its thoughtless remarks without thinking of the consequences, it may be faced with something that is not good.”

Full statement

The full statement by Ri Pyong Chol, secretary of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK), was released by Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on March 27:

The recent test-fire of new-type tactical guided missiles was an act tantamount to the exercise of the full-fledged right of a sovereign state for self-defense as it was a process that had been undertaken to implement the goals of the policy on national defense science set forth by our Party and government to boost the defense capabilities of the country.

We cannot but build invincible physical power for reliably defending the security of our state under the present situation in which South Korea and the U.S. constantly pose military threats to the Korean peninsula while persistently conducting dangerous war exercises and introducing advanced weapons.

We express our deep concern over the U.S. chief executive faulting the regular test-fire exercise of our state’s right to self-defense, as the violation of UN “resolutions” and openly revealing his deep-seated hostility toward the DPRK.

Such remarks from the U.S. president are an undisguised encroachment on our state’s right to self-defense and a provocation to it.

It is a gangster-like logic that it is allowable for the U.S. to ship strategic nuclear assets into the Korean peninsula and launch ICBMs any time it wants but not allowable for the DPRK, its belligerent party, to conduct even a test of a tactical weapon.

We clearly remember that since the appearance of the new administration in Washington there has been exploitation of every opportunity to make words and acts provoking the sovereignty and dignity of our state in which we were branded as the most serious “security threat.”

The bellicose stance of the new U.S. administration awakens us to the way to be followed by us and convinces us of the justice of the work to be done by us once again.

We are by no means developing weapons to draw someone’s attention or influence his policy.

If the war exercise staged by the U.S. right next to its belligerent party across the ocean is for “defense,” we have the full-fledged right to self-defense to contain the former’s military threat on its mainland.

I think that the new U.S. administration obviously took its first wrong step.

If the U.S. continues with its thoughtless remarks without thinking of the consequences, it may be faced with something that is not good.

We know very well what we must do.

We will continue to increase our most thoroughgoing and overwhelming military power.