U.S.-South Korea "Mutual Defense Treaty" Dismissed as Illegal

Pyongyang, April 7 (KCNA) -- The U.S. is advertising that its forces' occupation of south Korea and joint military exercises are "legal" as they are pursuant to the "mutual defense treaty" with south Korea and it is observing the Korean Armistice Agreement. A spokesman for the Disarmament and Peace Institute of the DPRK Foreign Ministry in a statement on Wednesday said this is sheer sophism and a crafty artifice to cover up the U.S. aggressive nature and mislead world public opinion. The statement said: The U.S.-south Korea "mutual defense treaty" which the U.S. cites as a ground claiming the "legality" of the joint military drills, is an illegal document quite contrary to the Korean Armistice Agreement. The AA stipulates the articles calling for holding a political conference within three months after the armistice agreement is signed and becomes effective and negotiating the questions of the withdrawal of all foreign forces from Korea and the peaceful settlement of the Korean question, etc. However, the U.S. concluded the "mutual defense treaty" with the south Korean puppet forces before the period for convening the political conference stipulated in the AA. The removal of cancer-like U.S. forces would create a peaceful environment as it would clear the Korean peninsula and the region of the source of war. But at present there is no institutional mechanism for checking a thermonuclear war on the Korean peninsula and the U.S. nuclear threat to the DPRK is steadily increasing. Under the prevailing situation the DPRK will further bolster its nuclear deterrence both qualitatively and quantitatively and exercise with dignity its right to self-defence as a sovereign state. -0-