editorial

The US and many other countries are staging RIMPAC, the largest-ever joint naval drill in the world, from June 24, raising violent waves of aggravated tension in the Pacific.

The drill will continue in vast waters off Hawaii and the Pacific until July 31, with over 30 warships of various missions, five submarines, over 200 fighters and 30 000 troops involved.

The US described the drill as an opportunity for special training aimed at strengthening the joint forces of the allies for "free and open Indo-Pacific".

It is tantamount to an admission that RIMPAC is not a customary drill against a potential enemy but a special war rehearsal of the US and its vassal forces targeting the regional states, main obstacles to the realization of the US’ Asia-Pacific strategy.

It is clearly evidenced by the participating countries in the drill and its scale.

The puppet ROK is taking part in the drill as a main force for the first time and the participating countries, including the defeated countries Japan, Germany and Italy, number 30 in total, the largest in its history.

And we cannot remain a passive onlooker to the drill as it is timed to coincide with the moves of the warmongers of the puppet ROK, the war criminal state Japan and NATO. In other words the ROK making more frantic efforts for the confrontation with the DPRK, and Japan running amuck to turn itself into a military power are getting evermore undisguised in their moves for the military nexus, and the ROK, Japan and NATO are getting evermore pronounced in their attempt to strengthen their military cooperation.

The contents and form of the drill are also a source of serious concern.

The preemptive attack elements the US, the ROK and Japan mastered in aggressive war exercises like Ulji Freedom Shield and Freedom Edge have been introduced into the whole course of RIMPAC including ground and landing drills, etc.

Based on the experience in modern warfare, the drill has set it as its important part to apply artificial intelligence and practise the integrated operation of unmanned and manned weapon systems.

In particular, the US and ROK marines staged a combined air mobility and air assault exercise under the simulated conditions of "infiltrating the area behind the enemy line" on the US Navy's amphibious assaulting ship Essex as part of RIMPAC.

What merits more serious attention is that the US Navy's nuclear carrier Theodore Roosevelt is playing a main role in the drill and fanning up the war fever in the combined operation with the war stooges.

As a result, the Pacific has turned into a battlefield permeated with the smell of gunpowder, unlike its name.

All the facts indicate who is undermining the basis of the global peace and security and predict that an undesirable contingency may occur soon in the Korean peninsula and the rest of the region.

It is obvious that the countries in the region will never look on with folded arms at the largest-ever war drill being staged by the most outrageous rogue-led group of stooges and other countries from across the ocean.

The regional countries will take a series of proportional countermeasures to determinedly contain and control the reckless acts of the rogues of the world.

It is the inviolable independent right of the relevant countries to beef up the war deterrent in order to protect their sovereignty and security interests and regional peace and stability from military challenges and threats of all the hostile forces.

Explicitly speaking, the US and its vassal forces must take the blame for the unpredictable escalation of the tensions in the region.