Timeline of KPA General Staff Statements

Timeline of KPA General Staff Statements

 June 5, 2011  Lee Myung Bak Group of Traitors’ Hideous Provocation Blasted

This statement calls for the prosecution of Lee Myung Bak and Kim Kwan Jin and threatens to “escalate the military retaliatory action” noted in the June 3rd, 2010 KPA General Staff Statement.

June 3, 2011 KPA to Take Thousand-fold Revenge on Lee Myung Bak Group

This statement threatens “practical and overall retaliatory military actions” against the ROK. The statement noted that the DPRK has suspended dialogue with the ROK and intends to “settle accounts with it only by force of arms”.

NOVEMBER 23rd 2010: SHELLING OF YEONPYEONG ISLAND

August 15, 2010 KPA Warning on US-S. Korea War Maneuvers

This statement threatens “military counteraction” in response to US-ROK exercises that would target “not only active-duty personnel and reserve forces of the south Korean puppet group but local puppet administrative organs and civilian enterprises”.

May 27, 2010 General Staff of KPA Issues Crucial Notice

This statement was a response to ROK President Lee Myung-Bak’s speech outlining measures to be taken against the DPRK in the wake of the sinking of the Cheonan. The statement declares that the “June 15 joint declaration and the October 4 declaration, the programme for implementing it” are now void and declares that inter-Korean relations are being driven “to the state of war.” 

MARCH 26th 2010: SINKING OF CHEONAN

January 27, 2010 Report of KPA General Staff on Live Shell Firing Drill

This statement announced an “artillery live shell firing drill” to assert the “extension of the Military Demarcation Line recognized by the DPRK”.

January 24, 2010 KPA General Staff Blasts S. Korean Defense Minister’s Outbursts

This statement responded to the ROK discussion of pre-emptive strikes against the DPRK noting that “our revolutionary armed forces will regard the scenario for ‘preemptive strike’ which the south Korean puppet authorities adopted as a ‘state policy’ as an open declaration of war.”

MAY 25, 2009: SECOND DPRK NUCLEAR TEST

April 18, 2009: KPA General Staff Spokesman Blasts Hostile Forces’ Anti-DPRK Racket

This statement was a response to the ROK joining the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI). It noted that the DPRK “will opt for increasing the nation’s defence capability including nuclear deterrent in every way, without being bound to the agreement adopted at the six-party talks.”

April 8, 2009: KPA General Staff Blasts Japan’s Ruckus after DPRK’s Satellite Launch

This statement condemned Japanese efforts to recover the wreckage of the DPRK’s April 5th missile launch.

APRIL 5th 2009: DPRK MISSILE LAUNCH

April 2, 2009: KPA General Staff Warns against Any Interception of Satellite

This statement threatened a retaliatory strike against the US, ROK, and Japan if they attempted to intercept the missile launch.

February 2, 2009: DPRK’s Principled Stand on Denuclearization of Korean Peninsula Reiterated

This statement declares that the DPRK will “never show [sic.] its nuclear weapons unless the U.S. rolls back its hostile policy towards the DPRK and the latter is completely free from the former’s nuclear threat”.