PYONGYANG, March 31 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) has reaffirmed its strategy to develop a nuclear strike capability to foil the U.S. ambition to annex it and "reduce all Koreans to modern-day slaves," the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported Friday.
Top DPRK leader Kim Jong Un "laid down a fresh strategic line of simultaneously pushing forward the economic construction and the building of nuclear force at the March 2013 Plenary Meeting of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea," said KCNA, quoting a memorandum it said was released by the DPRK government on Thursday.
The memorandum praised Kim for setting "the line as a strategic one of the party and the state by carrying forward the exploits of President Kim Il Sung and leader Kim Jong Il who accomplished the great cause of having access to nuclear weapons despite all difficulties."
"He thus broke the world political structure centered on the existing nuclear powers and fundamentally changed the world political landscape ...," it said.
The fresh line provided the army and people of the DPRK with a firm guarantee for frustrating "the U.S. imperialists' wild ambition to annex the northern half of the Republic and reduce all Koreans to modern-day slaves," it added.
The memorandum came at a time when tension is high on the Korean Peninsula with the United States and South Korea staging a large-scale joint military exercise, which the DPRK said is aimed at preparing for special operations to strike its supreme leadership and destroy its strategic nuclear and missile bases.
The DPRK has justified its efforts to develop nuclear weapons and warned the United States of preemptive strikes by its military without warning.
On March 13, South Korean and the U.S. combined forces kicked off the annual command post exercise code-named Key Resolve, following the launch on March 1 of the joint field training drill coded Foal Eagle. The DPRK has denounced the joint military exercises as a dress rehearsal for northward invasion.
The Key Resolve drill reportedly included operation plans on preemptive strikes against the DPRK's nuclear and missile facilities when signs of attack are detected.
The DPRK conducted a ballistic missile launch on March 21 and a ballistic missile engine test on March 19, which were strongly condemned by the United Nations Security Council.
