North Korea has asserted that the current situation on the Korean Peninsula is reminiscent of the days leading up to the Korean War as it reiterated its pledge to continue strengthening its nuclear forces.

A research institute affiliated with the North’s foreign ministry focusing on the U.S. claimed in a report on Monday that the military and political situation on the peninsula and in the surrounding region resembles the immediate onset of the Korean War.

The institute accused the U.S. and South Korea of engaging in what it calls delusional anti-Pyongyang military confrontations and machinations of rhetorical threats.

It argued that the level of military tension on the peninsula and Northeast Asia is nearing the tipping point for an outbreak of nuclear war, again blaming it on “hostile and rash” behaviors by the U.S.

The think tank said powerful and self-defensive nuclear deterrence is the only means of preventing the recurrence of a war, guaranteeing the balance of power and safeguarding peace and stability of the region.

It went on to say that so long as anachronistic anti-Pyongyang policies and tenacious military threats by Washington remain in effect, the North’s efforts to strengthen its military power will accelerate and the exercise of its sovereign right to self-defense will continue.

[Photo : YONHAP News]