DPRK calls declaration a threat to security

SEOUL — The Democratic People's Republic of Korea "most strongly denounces and rejects" the Washington Summit Declaration issued by NATO last week, state media reported on Saturday.
The declaration is proof that the United States and the bloc pose "the most serious threat to the global peace and security", the official Korean Central News Agency said, citing a statement released by the Foreign Ministry on Friday.
It is "an illegal document that violates the legitimate rights of independent sovereign states and a confrontational program that incites new Cold War and military confrontation on a global scale," the statement said.
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 "globalization" strategy pursued by the US 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 recognized principles of international law including respect for sovereignty, noninterference, equality and mutual benefit".
On the sidelines of the summit, the Republic of Korea and the US signed the "Guidelines for Nuclear Deterrence and Nuclear Operations on the Korean Peninsula".
The DPRK's Defense Ministry criticized those guidelines as "reckless provocation" making Pyongyang enhance its own 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 on Saturday, the DPRK said the country's military forces "will guarantee the national security in every way with its powerful nuclear war deterrent readiness".
The DPRK lashed out at the nuclear guidelines intended for "stepping up preparations for a nuclear war against the DPRK" by an integration of the nuclear forces of the US and the conventional forces of the ROK, saying it will "push the regional military tensions to extremes".
The nuclear threat posed by the enemy forces, along with the ensuing dangerous regional security environment, "urgently requires the DPRK to further improve its nuclear deterrent readiness and add important elements to the composition of the deterrent", it said.
Xinhua - Agencies
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