A spokesman for the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Country (CPRC) of the DPRK in a strongly-worded statement Thursday blasted the drill as an outright challenge to the historic April 27 Panmunjom Declaration and the September Pyongyang Joint Declaration reflecting the unanimous will of the entire nation for peace and prosperity of the Korean peninsula, and an open violation of the agreement on the military field in which the north and the south committed to make joint efforts for the ease of military tension and removal of hostility.

The statement continued:

The acts of perfidy on the part of the south Korean authorities have greatly disappointed us, as they, far from trying to keep to preserve the valuable spark of peace, reconciliation and cooperation, have gone against the trend toward the reconciliation on the peninsula which the north and the south nurtured by their joint efforts for the past one year.

While staging the large-scale combined aerial drill, the south Korean authorities claim that Max Thunder was thrown into the history and they reduced the scope of the drill by taking into consideration the situation on the Korean peninsula. They are seriously mistaken if they think they can give relief to us and stay clear of the public criticism at home and abroad with such trite nonsense.

In March also, the south Korean authorities held a joint military drill under the codename of Alliance that replaced Key Resolve which was agreed to be suspended, and now it mulls going ahead with it in the future, too.

They can never conceal the aggressive, offensive and confrontational nature of their hostile acts no matter how hard they may try to give impression about "reduction in scope" by replacing the codename.

Wind naturally brings wave. Now that the south Korean authorities get undisguised in their military provocation against the DPRK together with the U.S., there will be corresponding response to it from our army.

Whatever steps we take, the south Korean authorities can never make any complaint, and if they cavil at, that will render the issue and the situation further complicated to let it go out of control.

The south Korean authorities have to behave with discretion, mindful that their open perfidy to the DPRK at the crucial moment of whether to preserve the atmosphere of the improvement of the north-south ties may put the overall bilateral ties at risk.