TEMPO.CO, Seoul - North Korea said on Saturday, July 13, that it "most strongly denounces" a NATO declaration accusing Pyongyang of helping Russia's war against Ukraine and U.S. efforts to expand its alliances with the bloc and Asian countries.

NATO leaders on Wednesday accused North Korea and Iran of fuelling Russia's war by providing direct military support to Moscow. The summit also stressed a membership pledge for Kyiv and took a stronger stance on China's support for Moscow.

"The 'Washington Summit Declaration,' cooked up and made public on July 10, goes to prove that the U.S. and NATO, reduced to a tool for its confrontation, pose the most serious threat to the global peace and security," North Korea's state media KCNA quoted a foreign ministry spokesperson as saying.

It said the U.S. moves to expand military blocs with NATO countries and Asian partners, including South Korea and Japan were "the vicious root cause of seriously threatening the regional peace, extremely exacerbating the international security environment and sparking off worldwide arms race."

On the sidelines of the summit, South Korea and the United States signed guidelines on establishing an integrated system of extended deterrence for the Korean peninsula to counter nuclear and military threats from North Korea.

North Korea's defense ministry criticized those guidelines as "reckless provocation" making Pyongyang enhance its nuclear deterrence capability.

"It would be incomprehensible for anyone to imagine the price that will be paid if this warning is ignored," the ministry said in a statement.

REUTERS

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