Press statement of spokesman for DPRK Ministry of National Defence
The press statement said:
The US and ROK military warmongers launched the provocative large-scale joint air drill "Freedom Flag" against our state on October 26 by mobilizing huge air forces amid the large-scale field mobile war drill which is being conducted in a frantic way in the whole area of the ROK every day. The drill involves fighters of the army, navy and marines, to say nothing of air force, and AWACS, air refueling tanker and attack drones. This clearly shows the difference between the "defensive character" of the drill advocated by them and their military purpose.
In particular, the Third Expedition of the US Marines, the advance force for overseas aggression, staged the multi-domain reconnaissance drill for the first time in the ROK, which had been conducted in Hawaii, and openly asserted that its main purpose was to support the anti-DPRK preemptive strike system "Kill Chain" of the ROK. The fact clearly shows the gravity of the military attempt pursued by the enemy states.
The grave situation, in which the national security environment is being exposed to an intolerable threat by the ever-undisguised close-to-actual war and preemptive attack-type hostile military acts of the United States and the ROK, demands the practical application of stronger counteraction forces to deter and remove all forms of dangerous elements.
Any hostile act of violating the security right of the state is the target of the DPRK's armed forces' just exercise of its sovereign right. There is no limit for the DPRK's option to maintain a strong deterrent posture capable of effectively coping with all threats posed by the military moves of the United States and its vassal forces and to increase the control of the situation in the Korean peninsula and the region.
The most obvious confrontational intention is bound to invite the most obvious will to respond to it. Our armed forces will thoroughly deter threats with force and only act in such manner that the enemy states can understand.
No one can put a veto on the DPRK's legitimate exercise of its right to self-defence, the press statement noted.