North Korea condemns NATO summit, vows to strengthen nuclear forces

North Korea has condemned the United States and its allies for expanding military cooperation and increasing defence spending following this week's NATO summit, accusing the alliance of escalating confrontation and pledging to further strengthen its nuclear capabilities.

In a statement carried by state news agency KCNA on July 11, North Korea's foreign ministry accused NATO leaders of portraying the country's "legitimate sovereign rights" as a threat while reinforcing military blocs and accelerating arms buildups, Reuters reports.

Pyongyang said the alliance had demonstrated a stronger commitment to bloc-to-bloc confrontation through increased defence spending and closer military cooperation with partners in the Asia-Pacific region. It described NATO as an organisation geared toward war and confrontation that pursues exclusive geopolitical interests at the expense of peace and security in Europe and the Asia-Pacific.

At the NATO summit in Türkiye on July 7, alliance members announced 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 greater share of the alliance's defence burden.

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

North Korea also reiterated its position that international efforts to persuade it to abandon its nuclear weapons programme had been "irreversibly terminated." Instead, it argued that denuclearisation efforts should focus on what it described as attempts by South Korea and Japan to pursue nuclear capabilities under U.S. protection, as well as the nuclear-sharing arrangements involving some NATO members.

The foreign ministry said North Korea would continue to safeguard its sovereignty, security interests and regional peace through what it called the responsible exercise of its sovereign rights.

Separately, KCNA reported on July 11 that North Korea had decided to strengthen its nuclear forces "quantitatively and qualitatively," in line with leader Kim Jong Un's call to modernise the country's military.

By Sabina Mammadli