Present there were ambassadors of Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Iran and India to the DPRK and charges d'affaires a.i. of the Mongolian, Vietnamese and Pakistani embassies here.

Choe Hui Chol, director general of the Asian and Oceanian Department of the DPRK Foreign Ministry, informed them of the principled stand of the DPRK on the recent situation on the Korean peninsula.

He said that recently the U.S. opened to public the plan for "precision air raid operations" against nuclear facilities and nuclear force of the DPRK and introduced strategic assets including nuclear-powered submarine Mississippi into and around the Korean peninsula, driving its situation to an extreme phase.

The main cause of the tension on the Korean peninsula is attributable to the U.S. perverted view, he said, adding that this time, too, the U.S. made a very rash and strategically wrong decision, he noted, and went on:

The supreme interests of the state are threatened and the situation is led to the uncontrollable phase due to the U.S. ceaseless arms-buildup. Under this situation the DPRK will in future, too, continue to hold higher the banner of simultaneous development of the two fronts, bolster the capabilities for preemptive nuclear attack in a sustainable manner, continue to develop strategic attack weapons with diverse missions and deploy them for an actual war.

The Asian countries should clearly understand that the chief culprit escalating tension on the Korean peninsula and compelling the DPRK to constantly bolster physical deterrence is none other than the U.S., and do things helpful to the detente on the Korean peninsula.

The briefing on the situation served as an important occasion for helping diplomatic envoys here from Asian countries have deep understanding that the U.S. bellicose and hideous moves for threatening and blackmailing the DPRK with nuclear weapons become a root cause of escalating tension on the Korean peninsula.