A KCNA commentary dismisses this as foolish remarks to divert elsewhere the world public criticism of the U.S. ceaseless provocative joint military exercises in south Korea and its vicinity.

The above-said joint war maneuvers which the spokesperson of the U.S. Department of State painted as "annual ones and transparent ones" are war exercises for invading the DPRK and drills for actual nuclear strike at it in name and reality.

This is evidenced by the operation plans defining the nature of the exercises and the war hardware involved in them.

The U.S. has staged war exercises with the south Korean puppet army for years on the basis of the war scenarios of five versions for attacking the DPRK, steadily modifying and supplementing them.

The first version is OPLAN 5026 aimed at destroying the DPRK's nuclear facilities by making a two day-long surgical strike. The second one is OPLAN 5027 designed to finish the war in 90 days with huge troops involved and carry out the plan for prompt and precise strike, etc. They have been steadily modified and supplemented. The third version is OPLAN 5029 to cope with the "collapse" of the DPRK and the last version is OPLAN 8022-02, a combination of a precision nuclear attack and electronic warfare and network attack.

There are countless scenarios for aggression besides the above-said plans and the U.S. imperialists and the south Korean puppet army have conducted military drills according to these detailed operation plans.

The implementation of these war scenarios necessarily requires WMDs. In actuality, the U.S. unhesitatingly hurled highly destructive latest military hardware into various forms of war drills staged every year.

Nuclear carrier George Washington and Aegis destroyer Kidd were involved in the recent naval maneuvers.

The operation plans of those war maneuvers were aimed at stifling the DPRK and war hardware for offensive and aggression was involved in them. This fact alone clearly proved that their joint military exercises were maneuvers for actual nuclear strikes to put the whole territory of the DPRK under the U.S. control.

The DPRK can never remain a passive onlooker to the dangerous moves of the hostile forces to invade a sovereign country and reduce it to ashes.

The DPRK's firing of tactical rockets for self-defence is just whereas the anti-DPRK war moves and hostile policies of the U.S. and its followers are wrong.

The U.S. is sadly mistaken if it thinks it can conceal its criminal nature with sheer sophism and call into question the DPRK's acts for self-defence.

The validity of the DPRK's military actions for self-defense are being recognized by the world justice and conscience and they bitterly assail the U.S. hostile acts.

The DPRK will continue bolstering up its nuclear deterrence for self-defence to cope with the U.S. war moves, and its counter-actions will become annual and regular.

The U.S. should bear in mind that with nothing can it bar the DPRK from exercising this legitimate right.