Rodong Sinmun Thursday observes in a bylined commentary in this regard: This reveals the Obama administration's intention to spark off an arms race and a new Cold War in the Asia-Pacific region while in office.

The commentary goes on:

By his remarks that the U.S. would remain a "Pacific state" he means that it would like to remain a dominant "regional power" in Asia-Pacific and his talk about the tightened relations with the regional countries means using them for carrying out his strategy of focusing on Asia-Pacific.

The U.S. is attaching utmost importance to the Asia-Pacific region from its geopolitical and strategic viewpoints.

It is the scenario of the U.S. to lay a military siege to the countries in the Asia-Pacific region and step up its operations for containment and pressure with Mideast and Central Asia as a front and Northeast Asia and Southeast Asia as another front.

And the U.S. reactionary ruling circles are set to grab the countries in the Asia-Pacific region at any cost as their stable base for raw materials and fuel supply, markets for selling their products and areas for their capital investment.

In a word the strategy of focusing on Asia-Pacific professed by Obama is, in essence, a strategy for gratifying the U.S. imperialists' unlimited greed and ambition for domination over that region.

The U.S. is the arch criminal disturbing peace and security in the region and sparking off an arms race and a new Cold War. It is clear that in case the above-said strategy is zealously pushed forward in the days ahead, there will appear a new military confrontational structure equal to the one in the Cold War era or more dangerous than it, warns the commentary.