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| ▲ President Joe Biden (C) smiles before making opening remarks at the NATO summit in Washington on July 10, 2024, in this photo released by the Associated Press. (Yonhap) |
N Korea-NATO summit
N. Korea decries NATO summit declaration, warns of strong 'strategic counteraction'
SEOUL, July 13 (Yonhap) -- North Korea bristled Saturday at this week's North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit declaration that condemned its weapons exports to Russia, casting it as an "illegal" document and warning of strong "strategic counteraction."
A spokesperson of the North's foreign ministry issued the statement following this week's NATO summit in Washington, where the leaders of the 32-member alliance and its four Indo-Pacific partners -- South Korea, Japan, Australia and New Zealand -- shared concerns over a deepening military alignment between Pyongyang and Moscow.
On Wednesday, NATO leaders released the declaration, in which they "strongly" condemned the North's arms exports to Russia and voiced "great concern" over the two countries' deepening partnership.
"The DPRK Foreign Ministry most strongly denounces and rejects the 'declaration,' an illegal document that violates the legitimate rights of independent sovereign states and a confrontational program that incites a new Cold War and military confrontation on a global scale," the spokesperson said in the statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency.
DPRK stands for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
The spokesperson warned of strong counteraction, claiming that the prevailing situation requires a "new force and mode of counteraction to foil the U.S. attempt for (an) expanded military bloc."
"The Democratic People's Republic of Korea will never overlook or avoid the looming grave threat but thoroughly deter the aggression and war threat with stronger level of strategic counteraction and defend peace and security in the region and the rest of the world," the official said.
In the summit declaration, the leaders stressed that the North's exports of artillery shells and ballistic missiles to Russia are in violation of numerous U.N. Security Council resolutions.
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