North Korea on Saturday criticised the United States and its allies, accusing them of reinforcing military alliances and accelerating an arms buildup following this week’s NATO summit.
In a statement carried by state media KCNA, Pyongyang’s foreign ministry accused NATO leaders of portraying North Korea’s exercise of its legitimate sovereign rights as a threat.
The ministry said the alliance had deepened bloc-to-bloc confrontation by increasing defence spending and expanding military cooperation with partners in the Asia-Pacific region.
At the NATO summit in Turkey on Tuesday, officials unveiled more than $50 billion in military procurement and industrial agreements as European allies continued to face pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump to assume a larger share of the alliance’s defence responsibilities.
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South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, speaking on the sidelines of the summit, expressed hope that Seoul would broaden cooperation with NATO members in research and development, including advanced technologies and weapons production.
The foreign ministry also reiterated Pyongyang’s position that Western efforts to persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons have been irreversibly terminated. Instead, it said denuclearisation efforts should first address what it described as attempts by South Korea and Japan to pursue their own nuclear weapons under U.S. protection, along with the nuclear ambitions of NATO members involved in the alliance’s nuclear-sharing arrangements.
The ministry added that North Korea would protect its sovereignty, security interests and regional peace through the “responsible exercise of its sovereign rights”.
On Friday, KCNA reported that North Korea had decided to strengthen its nuclear forces “quantitatively and qualitatively” as leader Kim Jong Un pushes to modernise the country’s military.
Reuters
