However, the south Korean puppet forces finally kicked off the joint military drills on Aug. 18, asserting that they would stage the Ulji Freedom Guardian joint military exercises together with the U.S. as scheduled in defiance of the north's statement.

Rodong Sinmun Wednesday in an article terms this outright challenge to the DPRK's sincere efforts to terminate the tragedy of division through the national reconciliation, unity and reunification and pave a wide avenue of peace and prosperity.

The U.S. was the chief criminal who divided the Korean nation into the north and the south, the article says, adding:

Despite strong opposition and denunciation at home and abroad, the U.S. is instigating the south Korean authorities to stage frequent joint military exercises under the simulated conditions of invasion of the north. This is no more than an artifice to block the Koreans from having an opportunity of improving the inter-Korean relations and do harm to the north by pushing the situation on the Korean peninsula to an extreme phase of confrontation and tension.

It is as foolish an act as pulling the noose of subjugation around one's neck to try to solve the issue of the country's reunification, the matter of regaining the nation's sovereignty usurped by outside forces, by relying on outside forces

It is necessary to drop the curtain on the U.S. domination and interference in internal affairs of Korea.

If the south Korean authorities truly want peace and detente on the Korean peninsula, they should oppose the U.S. hostile policy toward the DPRK, the root cause of the regional tension, and stop the farce of seeking anachronistic "cooperation with outside forces in the campaign to put pressure on the north".

The withdrawal of the U.S. forces is the first step for putting an end to the U.S. domination and interference in internal affairs of south Korea.

The south Korean people should intensify the anti-U.S. struggle to force the U.S. imperialist aggressors, the source of all sorts of misfortune and pain, to go back to their den.