North Korea’s international ministry spokesperson mentioned as a lot to a query put by KCNA, the state information company reported on Sunday.
“The fact clearly exhibits that the actual objective of the US spreading the rumor a few ‘menace from North Korea’ is to offer an excuse for attaining army supremacy over the Asia-Pacific area,” mentioned the spokesperson.
“The prevailing scenario extra urgently requires build up the nation’s defenses to actively deal with the speedy aggravation of the safety surroundings,” the spokesperson added.
US President Joe Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol met on the sidelines of a NATO summit final week and agreed that the progress of North Korea’s nuclear and missile packages posed severe threats to not solely the Korean peninsula but in addition East Asia and the world.
North Korea has this 12 months been conducting missile assessments at an unprecedented tempo, and is believed by some to be making ready for one more nuclear take a look at.
“The deterrence capabilities of the Japan-US and US-Republic Of Korea alliances must be upgraded as a part of the important effort to strengthen the trilateral partnership between Japan, the US, and ROK,” Kishida mentioned.
Ties between Japan and South Korea have lengthy been strained by recollections of Japan’s occupation of the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945.
Relations deteriorated to their worst in years underneath South Korea’s earlier President Moon Jae-in, with spats over territory and historical past and the 2 nations calling off an intelligence sharing pact. Yoon, although, has expressed a need to restore ties, and Kishida has additionally appeared to reply favorably.