North Korea denounces NATO’s Washington summit declaration

SEOUL — North Korea, officially the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), “most strongly denounces and rejects” the Washington summit declaration issued by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) earlier this week, state media said Saturday.

The declaration is proof that the United States and the transatlantic bloc pose “the most serious threat to the global peace and security,” the official Korean Central News Agency said, citing a press statement released by a spokesman for the DPRK Foreign Ministry on Friday, reported Xinhua news agency.

It is “an illegal document that violates the legitimate rights of independent sovereign states and a confrontational programme that incites new Cold War and military confrontation on a global scale,” the statement added.

The US moves to expand military blocs seriously threaten regional peace, extremely exacerbate the international security environment, and spark a worldwide arms race, it said.

The DPRK warned that NATO’s “globalisation” strategy pursued by the United States brings “the danger of a worldwide war.”

The DPRK also lambasted Washington for “seriously infringing upon the sovereignty and security interests of other countries and constantly destroying the strategic stability of the world while wantonly violating the recognised principles of international law including respect for sovereignty, non-interference, equality and mutual benefit,” the report said.