Hideaki Kohiyama, secretary general of the Hokkaido Citizens' Council for Japan-Korea Solidarity, said:

UFG disturbing the peace on the Korean peninsula and in its vicinity and seeking a nuclear war should be halted at once.

The joint military exercises being staged in south Korea after the U.S. announcement of its new defense strategy are assuming more aggressive nature in their contents, and their scale and number are steadily increasing.

The U.S. announced that it would apply for the first time during UFG the "strategy" which calls for making a preemptive strike by mobilizing all forms of armed forces including nuclear weapons if "signs of the use of nukes and missiles" by someone are detected. This is an undisguised nuclear threat.

What is required now is to defuse military tensions on the Korean peninsula to secure the peace and stability in East Asia and replace the Korean Armistice Agreement with a peace one.

Akiyoshi Takanashi, secretary general of the Kanagawa Prefectural Citizen's Society for Promoting the Normalization of Japan-DPRK Diplomatic Relations, noted:

We wanting to see the peace and stability on the Korean peninsula can never overlook the military drills to ignite a war but strongly demand an immediate stop to them.

As the respect for the sovereignty and dignity of the DPRK and reunification of Korea are required for the peace and stability on the Korean peninsula, the criminal nature of the joint military exercises aimed to bring down the social system of the DPRK should not be overlooked even a bit.

We demand an immediate halt to the U.S.-south Korea joint military exercises.