The DPRK slammed Tokyo’s plans to open the primary Asia-based liaison workplace for the US-led navy bloc
North Korea’s Foreign Ministry has claimed NATO is searching for to extend its affect in Asia, citing rising “military collusion” with Japan, which hosted a delegation from the navy alliance final month to debate methods to step up cooperation.
In feedback carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Monday, an official with the Foreign Ministry’s Japan Research Center, Kim Seol-hwa, stated Washington is steadily pushing NATO into Asia by partnerships with regional powers.
“It is an open secret that the United States… has been trying to create a military alliance like this in the Asia-Pacific region,” he stated, including that the “recent unprecedented military collusion between Japan and NATO is arousing great concern and alertness in the international community.”
Kim went on to quote latest studies that NATO is now in talks to open a “liaison office” in Japan, its first such facility in Asia. The workplace could be used to “conduct periodic consultations with Japan and key partners in the region such as South Korea, Australia and New Zealand,” in accordance with the Nikkei Asia news web site.
“All facts clearly show that NATO’s attempt to advance into the Asia-Pacific region through military collusion with Japan has entered a dangerous implementation phase,” the Foreign Ministry official continued, additionally pointing to different “confrontational alliances” such because the ‘Quad’ bloc – which Beijing has decried as an “Asian NATO” – and AUKUS pact between Australia, the UK and the US.
Last month, Japan hosted a delegation from NATO’s Cooperative Security Division, which met with senior navy leaders to “discuss the current military cooperation and opportunities to foster a stronger partnership,” in addition to future joint drills with Japan’s armed forces.
Further highlighting the elevated cooperation, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg sat down with Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi on the alliance’s headquarters in Brussels on April 4, the place the 2 officers vowed to additional strengthen their partnership. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida additionally met with the NATO chief earlier this 12 months, after attending an alliance summit in 2022, a primary for a Japanese premier.
Kim argued that NATO’s overtures to international locations like Japan and South Korea have been a part of plans to “build a huge anti-China and anti-Russia encirclement” within the broader area, claiming the US-led alliance hopes to “keep neighboring countries in check” whereas increasing its navy footprint throughout the continent.
(RT.com)