A spokesman for the Panmunjom Mission of the Korean People's Army issued a statement on Monday in this regard:

The south Korean military warmongers have been busy staging an anti-DPRK psychological warfare in the Demilitarized Zone with agents specializing in this warfare and other riff-raffs involved since the mid-February under the signboards of "visit," "tour" and "observance".

It is a well-known fact that the south Korean military concluded what it called "MOU on supporting news coverage of the DMZ" with 15 media organizations in a bid to let their reporters tour not only the DMZ but nearby frontline areas and prepare materials for anti-north smear campaigns and release them by means of newspapers, broadcasting services, internet, etc.

As already known to the world, Paragraph 9 of Article 1 of the Armistice Agreement stipulates that "No person, military or civilian, shall be permitted to enter the Demilitarized Zone except persons concerned with the conduct of civil administration and relief and persons specially authorized to enter by the Military Armistice Commission."

It is preposterous for the U.S. and south Korean sides to allow those who have nothing to do with the civil administration and relief to enter the DMZ, given that the Military Armistice Commission was completely demised and the military machines of both sides tasked to supervise and control the implementation of the AA in place of the commission have not been in existence for nearly two decades due to the deliberate moves of the U.S. to scrap the AA.

In the final analysis, all these moves of the south Korean military warmongers cannot be interpreted otherwise than deliberate acts to turn the DMZ into theatre of confrontation with the DPRK and a site of psychological warfare against the north in disregard of the AA and strain the overall situation on the Korean Peninsula.

The U.S. is a signatory to the AA and responsible for implementing it.

It is, therefore, obliged to stop the moves of the south Korean military authorities to misuse the DMZ for meeting their sinister purpose.

The U.S. side should cogitate about the grave situation in which the security and order in the DMZ which have so far been observed for form's sake are disturbed and this area is turning into a total military zone and a theatre of inter-Korean confrontation and a site of psychological warfare against the north in contravention of the AA.

The Panmunjom Mission of the KPA clarifies the following principled stand to cope with the prevailing situation:

1. The U.S. side should force the south Korean authorities and military warmongers to halt at once their moves to disturb the security and order in the DMZ if it is interested in the peace and security on the peninsula as a signatory to the AA.

2. The south Korean military warmongers should roll back without delay their foolish plan to turn the DMZ into a theatre of confrontation with the DPRK and a site of psychological warfare against the north and stop their rash acts, if they want to escape the unexpected strike of the KPA.

3. If the U.S. and the south Korean authorities persist in their wrong acts to misuse the DMZ for the inter-Korean confrontation despite our warnings, these will entail unpredictable incidents including the loss of human lives in this area for which the U.S. side will be wholly to blame.

Intolerable is any act of disturbing the security and order in the DMZ.