PYONGYANG: North Korea on Saturday condemned the United States and its allies, accusing them of strengthening military blocs and accelerating arms buildups following a NATO summit held this week.
Pyongyang accused NATO leaders of portraying North Korea’s exercise of what it called legitimate sovereign rights as a threat, according to a statement issued by the Foreign Ministry and carried by state media outlet KCNA.
The ministry said the alliance had demonstrated a stronger commitment to bloc-to-bloc confrontation by increasing defence spending and expanding military cooperation with allies in the Asia-Pacific region.
At the NATO summit in Turkey on Tuesday, officials announced more than $50 billion in military procurement and industrial agreements as European allies continue to face pressure from US President Donald Trump to take greater responsibility for the alliance’s defence burden.
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, Pyongyang’s rival, said on the sidelines of the summit that Seoul hoped to expand cooperation with NATO members in research and development, including advanced technologies and weapons system production.
North Korea said the summit proved that NATO was an organisation focused on war and confrontation, pursuing what it described as exclusive geopolitical interests at the expense of peace and security in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region.
Pyongyang, which has said that Western efforts to convince it to abandon its nuclear weapons programme have been permanently ended, argued that denuclearisation efforts should instead begin with what it described as attempts by South Korea and Japan to develop their own nuclear weapons under US protection.
The Foreign Ministry also pointed to the nuclear-sharing arrangements of NATO members participating in the alliance’s nuclear strategy, saying such activities should be addressed first.
The ministry said North Korea would protect its sovereignty, security interests and regional peace through what it called the responsible exercise of its sovereign rights.
Meanwhile, KCNA reported on Friday that North Korea had decided on measures to strengthen its nuclear forces “quantitatively and qualitatively” as leader Kim Jong Un continues efforts to modernise the country’s military.