N Korea condemns strengthening NATO military cooperation - Taipei Times

North Korea yesterday condemned the US and its allies for what it called strengthening military blocs and accelerating arms buildups after a NATO summit this week.

Pyongyang accused NATO leaders of portraying North Korea's exercise of its legitimate sovereign rights as a threat, the North Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement carried by state media KCNA.

The alliance demonstrated a stronger commitment to bloc-to-bloc confrontation through increased arms spending and closer military cooperation with allies in the Asia-Pacific region, the ministry said.

Photo: KCNA VIA KNS / AFP

At the NATO summit in Turkey on Tuesday, officials announced more than US$50 billion in military procurement and industrial agreements as European allies face continued pressure from US President Donald Trump to shoulder a greater share of the alliance's defense burden.

South Korean President Lee Jae-myung on the sidelines of the summit said he hoped Seoul would expand cooperation with NATO allies in research and development, including in cutting-edge technologies, and in production of weapons systems.

North Korea said the summit showed that NATO was a body geared toward war and confrontation, pursuing what Pyongyang described as exclusive geopolitical interests at the expense of peace and security in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region.

North Korea believes that denuclearization efforts should focus first on what it described as attempts by South Korea and Japan to pursue their own nuclear weapons under US protection, as well as the nuclear ambitions of NATO members participating in the alliance's nuclear-sharing arrangements, the ministry said.

Pyongyang would safeguard its sovereignty and security interests, as well as regional peace, through the responsible exercise of its sovereign rights, it added.

KCNA on Friday said North Korea had decided on measures to bolster its nuclear forces "quantitatively and qualitatively" as leader Kim Jong-un calls for modernizing its military.