2023.5.29.

The U.S. and the south Korean puppet scoundrels are getting ever more desperate in their ceaseless war gamble which has gone beyond the threshold of another dangerous phase of escalating tension, though we keep an eye on them with patience.

The enemies launched the largest-ever "combined joint fire annihilation drill" in the area close to the Military Demarcation Line on May 25.

The drill to be conducted in five stages by June 15 is a very dangerous saber-rattling as its name denotes.

Involved in the first-stage drill were more than 2 500 troops from 71 units of combined forces of the U.S. forces and the south Korean puppet army and more than 610 arms and equipment of the ground and air forces including tanks, armored cars, fighters and drones.

The powder-reeking war drill was staged in a frantic manner by the U.S. and the south Korean puppet army as part of a "joint strike at artillery units, command and support facilities of the north" and of "reconnaissance surveillance of the north’s core targets in the area along the Military Demarcation Line and strike at them by air and artillery forces".

The puppet scoundrels went mad with confrontation before the drill, making bellicose remarks that the "drill is prepared as a demonstration of the ultra-modern military capability of the U.S.-south Korea alliance for peace by strength" and "it will show the shortest termination of operation with the might of the overwhelming U.S.-south Korea combined joint fighting power and military capabilities.

The "combined joint fire annihilation drill" is not a simple ordinary military drill but a very dishonest and threatening actual drill, a preview for the aggressive war and a dangerous attempt to use armed forces against the DPRK.

As everybody knows, the U.S. and the south Korean puppet warmongers have mastered military threat and blackmail and war tactics against the DPRK through the "combined joint fire annihilation drill".

The drill has been staged 11 times since June 1977 as it was pursuant to the war scenario that the U.S. and south Korean puppet ground, naval and air combined forces would carry out a "punishment" against the DPRK by mobilizing "latest weapons" in case a war breaks out on the Korean Peninsula.

The figures show that the U.S. imperialists and the south Korean puppet scoundrels made great efforts to stage every "combined joint fire annihilation drill".

At the end of last year, they openly revealed the bellicose nature of the drill, describing it as "the largest-ever one involving many cutting-edge weapons" and "the one demonstrating the great firepower and maneuverability of the alliance".

As the world public raised deep concern and strong protest over the gravity of the drill, the U.S. announced before the start of the drill that the combined joint fire operation drill is defensive in essence and for helping display the mutual operation. In this way, the U.S. replaced the sensitive word "annihilation" from the drill’s title with "operation" in a bid to cover up the drill’s dangerousness.

But the south Korean puppet rascals persisted in terming it "combined joint fire annihilation drill", contending that "the aim of the drill is to improve the ability for carrying out the U.S.-south Korea combined joint operation" and that "they would "strengthen the deterrent through exercises for maneuverability and live firing". This clearly shows the bellicose true colors of the enemy trying to "exterminate" us under the pretext of "security".

The stooges of the U.S. so often say that all our acts pose a "serious threat" and theirs provide a "durable security", because they are under pressure of security uneasiness, persecution complex and obsession.

What cannot be overlooked is the fact that the enemy is waging another military action assuming serious aspect of a nuclear war, as well as the combined drill.

Even now, a joint air drill by the 7th U.S. air force and the south Korean puppet air force continues frantically in the sky above the region of the puppets. And a "joint sea intercepting drill" will be staged in the waters off Jeju Island from May 30, together with Japan and other vassal forces.

On the day of the start of the drill, the U.S. Defense Department announced that more strategic assets, including F-22s, F-35s and B-1 strategic bomber, would be deployed in the region of the puppets.

The present situation, in which the "combined joint fire annihilation drill" and other military moves are simultaneously pushed forward with, clearly shows the sinister scheme of the enemies to launch an all-out aggression on the DPRK from the sky, land and sea at any moment by mobilizing even all their strategic assets.

These are very serious developments.

History showed that ceaseless military exercises and arms buildup by the imperialists and warmongers surely led to the criminal military action for invasion of other countries.

No one can vouch that the current combined drill of the U.S. imperialists and the south Korean puppet rascals will not lead to an all-out armed invasion of the DPRK.

It is no exaggeration to say that the war scenario for aggression on the DPRK has already entered its implementation stage through training stage.

We’d like to ask them if they can cope with the consequences to be entailed by their reckless and dangerous war gambles that are being staged under the eyes of the armed forces of the DPRK they describe as very worrying and threatening.

Rodong Sinmun