Pyongyang, May 17 (KCNA) -- A spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea issued the following press statement titled "The U.S. should stop offending the DPRK with unnecessary and inefficient malicious provocations" on Friday:

Recently, the U.S. Department of State committed a political provocation of re-designating the DPRK as an "uncooperative state in combating terrorism" under the pretext of not joining in its "anti-terrorist efforts."

Such unilateral and malicious designating campaign staged by the U.S. every year should be duly denounced and rejected by the international community as it is a smear stratagem to brand the independent sovereign states as "state sponsor of terrorism" and make them targets of international criticism.

The "anti-terrorism" advocated by the U.S. is nothing but an excuse to justify interference in internal affairs of other countries and the overthrow of their social systems and in fact, the countries designated by the U.S. as "uncooperative state in combating terrorism" are becoming the main targets of the U.S. hostile policy and military threat, the expression of the most heinous state-sponsored terrorism.

No one has asked the U.S. to lead international anti-terrorist efforts, nor has anyone invested it with such power.

"The Declaration on Measures to Eliminate International Terrorism" and other international laws adopted at the 49th session of the UN General Assembly branded the acts of threatening friendly relations between states and of encroaching upon the territorial integrity and security of a state as crimes and clearly stipulate that the struggle against international terrorism should be waged under the UN Charter and other international laws.

This proves that the U.S. illegal and unjust hostile acts against the DPRK and other sovereign states are the most serious political violence as well as state-level terrorism.

It is the consistent stand of the DPRK to resolutely oppose all forms of terrorism threatening international peace and security, but the so-called "anti-terrorist efforts" of the U.S., recognized as a synonym for interference in internal affairs and acts of aggression against independent countries, are irrelevant to the DPRK's will against terrorism.

Before dealing with someone's "cooperation" in the issue of "anti-terrorism", the U.S. had better face up to the present situation of the DPRK-U.S. relations which have been fixed as the one between states thoroughly hostile to each other due to the U.S. unilateral and wrong doings.

The more the U.S. provokes the DPRK with unnecessary and inefficient malicious acts, the further it will escalate the irreconcilable hostility between the DPRK and the U.S.

The DPRK will never tolerate any outside attempt to impair and violate the dignity, sovereign rights and security interests of the state but take effective and proper measures to cope with the U.S. hostile provocations in all spheres. -0-