North Korea on Saturday sharply criticized the United States and its allies following this week’s NATO summit, accusing the military alliance of deepening global confrontation through expanded defense spending, closer military cooperation in the Asia-Pacific and what Pyongyang described as an increasingly aggressive security posture.
In a statement carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), North Korea’s Foreign Ministry said NATO had strengthened military blocs while accelerating an arms buildup that threatens regional and international stability. The ministry argued that the alliance continues to portray North Korea’s military activities as a security threat while ignoring what it called Pyongyang’s legitimate sovereign rights.
According to the statement, NATO demonstrated a stronger commitment to bloc politics by increasing defense expenditures and expanding military cooperation with partners in the Indo-Pacific region, moves North Korea said undermine peace rather than preserve it.
The criticism followed the NATO summit in Turkey earlier this week, where member states announced more than $50 billion in defense procurement and industrial cooperation agreements. The commitments came as European allies continue facing pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump to assume a greater share of the alliance’s collective defense responsibilities.
Pyongyang also criticized growing security cooperation between NATO and countries in the Asia-Pacific, particularly South Korea.
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung said on the sidelines of the summit that Seoul hopes to broaden collaboration with NATO members in defense research and development, advanced military technologies and weapons production. While South Korea is not a NATO member, it has steadily expanded cooperation with the alliance in recent years amid rising security concerns on the Korean Peninsula.
North Korea argued that such cooperation demonstrates NATO’s intention to expand its strategic influence beyond Europe and transform itself into what Pyongyang described as an organization centered on confrontation and military competition.
The Foreign Ministry claimed the alliance is pursuing exclusive geopolitical interests at the expense of peace and security in both Europe and the Asia-Pacific, accusing NATO of promoting division rather than dialogue.
The statement also addressed longstanding international efforts to persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program. Pyongyang reiterated its position that denuclearization negotiations initiated by Western countries have effectively become irrelevant and insisted that pressure aimed solely at North Korea ignores broader regional security issues.
Instead, the ministry argued that international attention should focus on what it described as South Korea’s and Japan’s growing dependence on the United States’ extended nuclear deterrence, as well as NATO’s own nuclear-sharing arrangements among several member states.
North Korea has long maintained that U.S. military deployments and alliances in Northeast Asia justify its pursuit of nuclear weapons as a means of ensuring national survival.
The Foreign Ministry said Pyongyang would continue safeguarding its sovereignty, national security and regional stability through what it called the responsible exercise of its sovereign rights.
The statement reinforced a broader policy direction outlined by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who has repeatedly ordered the modernization of the country’s conventional and strategic military capabilities.
On Friday, KCNA reported that North Korea had adopted new measures to strengthen its nuclear forces both “quantitatively and qualitatively,” signaling continued expansion of the country’s strategic arsenal.
Although the state media report provided few details, the announcement suggests Pyongyang intends to increase both the size and sophistication of its nuclear capabilities as tensions remain elevated across Northeast Asia.
North Korea has accelerated weapons development in recent years, conducting multiple ballistic missile launches and unveiling increasingly advanced strategic systems while rejecting calls from Washington, Seoul and Tokyo to return to denuclearization negotiations.
Meanwhile, the United States and its allies have expanded joint military exercises, strengthened missile defense cooperation and increased defense coordination in response to North Korea’s growing arsenal.
The latest exchange of rhetoric highlights the widening divide between Pyongyang and the Western alliance, with both sides accusing the other of fueling instability. As NATO seeks deeper partnerships in the Indo-Pacific and North Korea presses ahead with military modernization, prospects for renewed diplomatic engagement remain uncertain, leaving regional security tensions at some of their highest levels in years.
