PYONGYANG - The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) held a national meeting in Pyongyang on Sunday to mark the 84th founding anniversary of the Korean People's Army (KPA), the official KCNA news agency reported.

Ri Myong-su, chief of the General Staff of the KPA, addressed the meeting, which was also attended by Kim Yong-nam, president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, Hwang Pyong-so, director of the General Political Bureau of the KPA, and other officials of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea, the state and the army.

Ri reviewed the creation of the first revolutionary armed forces during the fight against Japanese aggression in 1932 by late top leader of the DPRK Kim Il-sung and how his successor Kim Jong-il further developed the army "onto a new stage."

Now the KPA "has greeted the golden age of bolstering up the revolutionary armed forces" under the leadership of Marshal Kim Jong-un, he added.

Ri, in his report, lashed out at the United States for introducing strategic weapons to South Korea in their joint military exercises, bringing danger of a nuclear war to the Korean Peninsula and escalating the tensions to an extreme phase.

He warned that if the United States and South Korean authorities made nuclear provocations aimed at hurting the DPRK's supreme leadership, the DPRK military would launch a preemptive strike through air, land, sea and underwater operations "without any restriction and without any warning and prior notice."