Pyongyang, May 1 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry of the DPRK in a statement Monday said that the touch-and-go situation, created on the Korean peninsula due to the U.S. DPRK-targeted joint military exercises for aggression and the military threat, has left a serious lesson.

The confrontation between the DPRK and the U.S. has lasted for more than half a century but the U.S. aggression hysteria has never reached such a height and the situation on the Korean peninsula has never inched close to the brink of nuclear war as in the period of the recent drills, the statement said, and went on:

The situation on the Korean peninsula proves once again that the U.S. is the chieftain of aggression and war, and harasser of peace who is escalating tension and that the DPRK was just and far-sighted when it opted for bolstering its powerful nuclear deterrence for self-defence under the uplifted banner of the simultaneous development of the two fronts.

If the DPRK had not had access to the powerful nuclear force and had not gotten itself ready to counter the U.S. and its vassal forces' provocation with merciless military counteraction, the U.S. would have committed without hesitation the same brigandish aggression act in Korea as what it committed against other countries.

In order to check such high-handed and arbitrary practices and defend the sovereignty and the right to existence of the country and the nation, and to contribute to regional peace and security and genuine international justice, the DPRK has been bolstering its nuclear deterrence despite manifold difficulties.

The recent confrontation with the U.S. reminds us once again of the iron truth that one has to build one's own strength in order to defend oneself from the whirlwind of history in which it is neither aided nor sympathized by anyone.

Now that the U.S. is kicking up the overall racket for sanctions and pressure against the DPRK, pursuant to its new DPRK policy called "maximum pressure and engagement", the DPRK will speed up at the maximum pace the measure for bolstering its nuclear deterrence.

The DPRK is fully ready to respond to any option taken by the U.S., and unless it withdraws its hideous hostile policy toward the DPRK and nuclear threat and blackmail, the DPRK will continue to bolster its military capabilities for self-defence and preemptive nuclear attack with the nuclear force as a pivot.

The DPRK's measures for bolstering the nuclear force to the maximum will be taken in a consecutive and successive way at any moment and any place decided by its supreme leadership. -0-