Mujahidul Islam Selim, general secretary of the Central Committee of the Bangladesh Communist Party, in a statement on August 23 branded the largest-ever Ulji Freedom Guardian joint military exercises, which were staged with various types of the latest war equipment and huge armed forces involved, as an undisguised military provocation apparently targeted against the DPRK.

Fully supporting the just stand of the DPRK which was clarified through an answer given by a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he strongly urged the U.S. and the south Korean authorities to stop at once the dangerous war exercises.

Flavio Pettinari, representative of the Italian Branch of the Korean Friendship Association and chief of the Group for the Study of the Juche Idea, the Songun Idea in Fermo of Italy, in a statement on August 20 said that the reality clearly proves that the U.S. and the south Korean authorities are the harassers of peace and war maniacs who bring dark clouds of a new war to hang over the land of Korea, expressing support and solidarity with the Korean people in their just struggle to defend the sovereignty of the country and achieve the peaceful reunification.

Surya Lal, chairman of the Peace Action Committee of Nepal, in a statement on August 22 demanded the U.S. and the south Korean authorities stop at once all kinds of joint military exercises and opt for peaceful settlement of the pending issues on the Korean Peninsula.