We intended to allow the visit of the special envoy of the U.S. Department of State proposed by the U.S. side and have a sincere discussion with him on the issue of the U.S. citizen serving a prison term in our country from a humanitarian viewpoint.

As well known, the U.S. and south Korea staged large-scale joint military exercises against the DPRK in recent days but we exercised utmost self-restraint to prevent a vicious cycle of escalating tension at any cost.

Notwithstanding, the U.S. perpetrated such a grave military provocation as infiltrating B-52H strategic bombers into the sky above the Korean Peninsula in succession, an unprecedented act, for a drill for nuclear bombing, far from positively responding to our tolerance and patience.

As shown by the situation which reached the brink of a war in last April, the strategic bombers' intrusion into the air over the Korean Peninsula is the most blatant nuclear blackmail against us and a military threat to us as it is the most striking manifestation of the offensive and aggressive nature of the joint military drills.

The U.S. thus beclouded the hard-won atmosphere of humanitarian dialogue in a moment.

Despite the fact that we clearly notified the U.S. side of this through the New York contact channel, it is something surprising that the U.S. is making irrelevant remarks that it was surprised by our action.