Pyongyang, August 4 (KCNA) -- Maeng Yong Rim, director general of the Department of Chinese Affairs of the Foreign Ministry of the DPRK, issued the following press statement on August 3:

Recently, the U.S. made public "Weapons Aid Package" for providing Taiwan with weapons worth 345 million U.S. dollars, thus driving the military tensions in the Asia-Pacific region to another ignition point of war.

In less than three years since the present U.S. administration came into power, it provided military aid to Taiwan as times as the preceding administration had done.

The U.S. is planning to provide Taiwan with military aid worth 10 billion U.S. dollars for the coming five years\and emergency defense aid worth a billion U.S. dollars every year.

This constitutes a flagrant violation of the one China principle, which the U.S. committed itself before the Chinese government\and people,\and of the spirit of the three China-U.S. joint communiqués. It is also an interference in internal affairs of China\and a grave encroachment on China's sovereignty\and security.

The U.S. says in public that it abides by the principle of one China but instigates in the rear the "independence" of Taiwan, inseparable part of China. Such shameless duality\and double-dealing of the U.S. are a dangerous political\and military provocation totally destroying the stability of the regional situation\and an anti-peace reckless act which must be condemned by the world people.

It is very natural that the Chinese government\and army clearly reiterated their stand resolutely opposing the U.S. provision of weapons to Taiwan island\and scathingly censured that such acts are making Taiwan a "powder keg"\and "ammunition depot"\and driving the situation in the Taiwan Strait to the brink of war.

While talking about the improvement of relations with China, the present U.S. administration is clinging to the Taiwan issue, the most important core interests of China. Its intention is clear.

It is the sinister intention of the U.S. to turn Taiwan into an unsinkable advanced base against China\and the first-line trench for carrying out its strategy for deterring China\and thus secure its hegemonic position in the Asia-Pacific region.

But the U.S. ambition for hegemony can never work on the strength of the powerful Chinese people.

What the "Taiwanese independence" separatist forces have gottenrom the U.S. arms sale to Taiwan is nothing but to turn its island into a U.S. huge old weapon exhibition\and a heap of scrap iron.

If the U.S. persists in dangerous acts of provoking the core interests of China while repeatedly violating the red line set by China in the Taiwan issue, it will surely have to pay a high price for them.

The Asia-Pacific region including the Korean peninsula\and the Taiwan Strait is neither a theatre of the U.S. military activity nor a test site of war.

Independent\and sovereign states in the Asia-Pacific region have the strength\and will to firmly defend their sovereignty\and core interestsrom the U.S. high-handed\and arbitrary practices.

We brand the U.S. moves to instigate the "Taiwanese independence" separatist forces as a wanton interference in the internal affairs of China\and a grave encroachment upon its sovereignty\and strongly denounce\and reject them.

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea will fully support any measure of the People's Republic of China to defend the sovereignty\and territorial integrity of the country\and achieve the sacred cause of the unification of the Chinese nation. -0-