North Korea Condemns NATO Summit, Says Denuclearisation Should Begin with U.S. Allies

KNCA via Reuters

North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un.

North Korea on Saturday criticised the United States and its allies, accusing them of strengthening military alliances and accelerating the global arms race following this week's NATO summit.

In a statement carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), North Korea's Foreign Ministry accused NATO of portraying Pyongyang's legitimate exercise of its sovereign rights as a security threat.

The ministry said the alliance had reinforced its commitment to bloc-based confrontation by increasing defence spending and deepening military cooperation with partners in the Asia-Pacific region.

At the NATO summit in Türkiye on Tuesday, alliance members announced more than $50 billion in military procurement and industrial agreements as European allies continued to face pressure from US President Donald Trump to assume a greater share of NATO's defence responsibilities.

On the sidelines of the summit, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung said Seoul hoped to expand cooperation with NATO members in defence research and development, including advanced technologies and the production of weapons systems.

North Korea claimed the summit demonstrated that NATO had become an organisation driven by war and confrontation, pursuing what it described as exclusive geopolitical interests at the expense of peace and stability in both Europe and the Asia-Pacific.

Pyongyang, which maintains that international efforts to persuade it to abandon its nuclear weapons programme have irreversibly failed, argued instead that denuclearisation should begin with US allies. It said attention should focus on what it described as South Korea's and Japan's pursuit of nuclear capabilities under the US nuclear umbrella, as well as the nuclear-sharing arrangements involving several NATO member states.

The Foreign Ministry added that North Korea would continue to safeguard its sovereignty, national security and regional stability through what it described as the responsible exercise of its sovereign rights.

KCNA said on Friday that North Korea had decided on measures to strengthen its nuclear forces "quantitatively and qualitatively" as leader Kim Jong Un calls for modernising its military.

Source: Reuters



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