The statement said that U.S. moves against the DPRK reached a new serious phase.

The U.S. is gathering mercenaries and terrorists for the purpose of destroying statues, symbol of the dignity of the supreme leadership of socialist Korea, and grand monuments, the statement noted, and went on:

The U.S. is the prime-mover of hideous state-sponsored and politically-motivated terrorism against the DPRK.

It has massively financed the organizations breeding plots against the DPRK every year, escalating psychological warfare and operation for destabilizing the DPRK.

This hideous terrorism aimed to stifle the socialist system in the DPRK is a clear manifestation of the U.S. hostile policy toward it.

The move to blow up the statues, in particular, is the most undisguised insult to the dignity of the supreme leadership of the DPRK and the mainstay of its people and a physical attack on them, a war action little different from invasion.

It is quite just for the DPRK to bolster its nuclear deterrent for the security of the country and nation under the situation in which the U.S. continues hostile actions despite its claim that it does not intend to be hostile toward the DPRK.