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DPRK accuses U.S. of escalating tensions on Korean Peninsula

Xinhua, July 11, 2016 Adjust font size:

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Monday denounced the United States for making the situation on the Korean Peninsula "extremely tense" through a series of moves, and vowed to take stronger countermeasures to defend the country.

In a statement carried by the state news agency KCNA, a spokesman for the DPRK Foreign Ministry slammed the United States for recent military moves, including dispatching strategic assets such as the nuclear-powered submarine USS Mississippi and B-52H bombers to South Korea or nearby.

"The U.S. seeks to turn the peninsula into a theater of a thermonuclear war and thus implement its aggressive 'pivot to Asia-Pacific' strategy in real earnest," the statement said.

The recent decision by Washington and Seoul to deploy the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) in South Korea was aimed to achieve this goal, it added.

It said the United States intends to maintain its military advantage in the region while staging aggressive war games and stepping up military buildup and the creation of a military bloc.

On the same day, the Artillery Bureau of the Korean People's Army of the DPRK warned that it will take "physical measures" to cope with the U.S. THAAD deployment in South Korea, saying the countermeasures will be taken once the location of the deployment is decided.

In a joint statement issued on Friday, Seoul and Washington said the two allies decided to deploy THAAD in South Korea to protect the country and its people from the DPRK's nuclear threats, weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles. Endi