DPRK condemns U.S.-S.Korea nuclear guidelines

SEOUL, July 13 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) has condemned the "Guidelines for Nuclear Deterrence and Nuclear Operations on the Korean Peninsula" that the United States and South Korea signed earlier this week, the DPRK's state media said Saturday.

In a press statement published by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), the DPRK said the country's military forces "will guarantee the national security in every way with its powerful nuclear war deterrent readiness."

The DPRK lashed out at the nuclear guidelines intended for "stepping up preparations for a nuclear war against the DPRK" by an integration of the nuclear forces of the United States and the conventional forces of South Korea, saying it will "push the regional military tensions to extremes."

The nuclear threat posed by the enemy forces and the ensuing dangerous regional security environment "urgently requires the DPRK to further improve its nuclear deterrent readiness and add important elements to the composition of the deterrent," the KCNA said.

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol and U.S. President Joe Biden warned in a joint statement on Thursday that any DPRK nuclear attack against South Korea will be met with a "swift, overwhelming and decisive" response, after Seoul's Defense Ministry and the Pentagon inked the nuclear guidelines document in Washington on the same day, according to Yonhap reports.