Rodong Sinmun Thursday observes in a signed commentary in this regard:

In 1994 the U.S. transferred the "right to command peace-time operations" to south Korea and put OPCON on hold. This was aimed to retain its grip on south Korea, a strategic vantage, and step up the formation of the U.S.-Japan-south Korea triangular military alliance.

The U.S. has maintained and expanded NATO, an aggressive military bloc in Europe, in a bid to realize its invariable ambition for world domination since the demise of the Cold War and is now working hard to knock into shape a new military bloc in Asia.

It is the U.S. scenario to cook up a new military bloc in Northeast Asia by taking advantage of the favorable situation where there are an alliance between the U.S. and Japan and an alliance between the U.S. and south Korea and then draw other countries into them in an effort to use them as a tool for implementing its Asian strategy for aggression.

Recent years witnessed awkward relations between the U.S. and south Korea, between the U.S. and Japan and they relatively weakened the U.S. presence in this region as compared with that in the past.

The U.S. has, therefore, used the "Cheonan" case as a golden opportunity for stepping up the formation of the above-said triangular military alliance.

This was the reason why the U.S. imperialists clinched the deal over the controversial issue of the transfer of the Futenma U.S. military base in Japan under the pretext of the "Cheonan" case and sought a solution to the worrisome issue of extending OPCON.

It is as clear as a pikestaff that the emergence of a new military bloc in Northeast Asia would make the situation not only in Asia but the rest of the world more complicated and put peace at serious peril.

The U.S. would be well advised to drop its anachronistic Cold War-minded way of thinking.