It was a full-fledged exercise of the country's sovereignty as the test demonstrated the will and potentials of Songun Korea to stand against the brigandish action of the U.S., which wantonly encroached upon even the right of a sovereign state to launch satellite for peaceful purposes.

The U.S., however, portraying it as a "challenge" to the international community, has stepped up hostile actions while crying out for a "preemptive nuclear attack" on the DPRK. This can neither frighten the DPRK nor make it retract its countermeasures as it has already predicted how things will turn and experienced such actions.

The U.S. stepped-up hostile actions prove that the DPRK's option and reaction were quite just, and only harden the will to counter tough action with toughest action.

This is the truth proved by the history of the DPRK-U.S. relations and confrontation.

As known, no nation has directly been exposed to the U.S. nuclear threat for such a long time in the world as the Korean nation.

The nuclear threat to the Korean nation is an issue which should be settled by staking its destiny as the country was directly affected by the U.S. nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 and took heavy toll next to Japan.

Proceeding from this, the DPRK proposed establishing a peace zone free from A-bombs in Asia in 1959 after the war and has made every possible effort for decades to realize the proposal.

To this end, it has worked hard for dialogue including bilateral and multilateral talks with the U.S. and countries concerned and made positive efforts by dint of international law including its accession to NPT.

But the U.S. hostile policy and strategy for nuclear blackmail aimed to swallow up the whole of Korea at any cost, prompted by the advantageous topographical features of the Korean Peninsula, have been systematically intensified in all fields century after century.

This proved that the efforts through dialogue and by dint of international law will all end up in smoke as long as the U.S. hostile policy and threat of a nuclear war continue.

The DPRK has been put in the "list of preemptive nuclear attack" amid the state of physical showdown with the U.S., the biggest nuclear weapons state and the only nuclear war criminal state, which has long persisted. Defending the sovereignty of the country under such situation was not an issue which could be settled with words or appeals.

The ceaseless nuclear blackmail and sanctions racket kicked up by the U.S. gravely threatening the DPRK's right to self-determination and development and even its vital right required a special solution to them.

Therefore, what the DPRK finally opted was the strategic resolution to react to nuclear weapons with nuclear weapons.

The tragic consequences in those countries which abandoned halfway their nuclear programs, yielding to the high-handed practices and pressure of the U.S. in recent years, clearly prove that the DPRK was very far-sighted and just when it made the option. They also teach the truth that the U.S. nuclear blackmail should be countered with substantial countermeasures, not with compromise or retreat.

The resolute stand of the DPRK that it will take tougher countermeasures in succession if the U.S. goes hostile to it is based on the present-day's stark situation and the historical lesson.

The DPRK's substantial countermeasures based on justice and truth will continue till it wins a final victory.