A spokesman for the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. charge d' affaires in south Korea asserted that the drills would start immediately after the Olympics.

Commenting on this, Rodong Sinmun Wednesday says that their remarks are an outright challenge to the sincere efforts made by the DPRK to defuse the tension on the Korean peninsula and create a peaceful environment as they are a sinister military racket aimed to chill the atmosphere for the improvement of the north-south ties and reverse the trend of development with the DPRK's participation in the Olympics as a momentum.

The commentary notes that if the U.S. and south Korean military warmongers resume the large-scale joint military drills aimed at the DPRK as soon as the Winter Olympics are over, the inter-Korean relations which took the first step towards detente will worsen and the situation on the Korean peninsula turn back to the catastrophic phase again.

It goes on:

If the joint military exercises bedeviling the improvement of the north-south relations and threatening peace resume despite the unanimous opposition and denunciation at home and abroad, the U.S. and south Korean military warmongers will be held wholly accountable for the consequences to be entailed by them.

The U.S. and south Korean military warmongers would be well advised to stop acting rashly, clearly bearing in mind that if they do not stop the nuclear war saber-rattling bringing a miserable disaster to the Korean peninsula, they will be bitterly blasted by the Korean nation and the international community.