PYONGYANG, April 02. /ITAR-TASS/. North Korean (DPRK) leader Kim Jong Un has described the situation in the south of the Korean Peninsula as very grave. “The current situation is very grave,” the supreme commander-in-chief of the Korean People’s Army (KPA) stressed at a meeting with the country’s high command.

“The United States and other hostile forces, ignoring our magnanimity and goodwill, are viciously stepping up their maneuvres in order to annihilate our republic politically, isolate it economically and crush it militarily,” he was quoted on Wednesday by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

The situation in the south of the Korean Peninsula has at present aggravated due to the actions of the United States and South Korea that are currently engaged in a large-scale Marine exercise code-named Ssang Yong (“Double Dragon”).

In response to this, Pyongyang, that has had a traditionally critical attitude to these maneuvres, carried out the launch of two medium-range missiles of the Rodong type, an act that has been condemned by the UN Security Council. In addition, DPRK last week conducted artillery test firing in the area of its west coast near the northern limit line that is factually the inter-Korean maritime border in the Yellow Sea. Several shells during the exercise fell into the area controlled by Seoul. South Korea opened fire in return.