North Korea Says NATO Chief’s Seoul Trip Is A ‘Prelude To Confrontation’

North Korean state media on Monday expressed dissatisfaction with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg’s trip to South Korea, calling it a “prelude to confrontation and war.”

Stoltenberg pushed for South Korea to “step up to the specific issue of military support” for Ukraine during a speech in the country.

“The trip of the NATO secretary general to South Korea and Japan is a prelude to confrontation and war as it brings the dark clouds of a ‘new Cold War’ to the Asia-Pacific region,” North Korean political researcher Kim Tong-Myong asserted in a piece posted by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), a state-sponsored outlet.

Kim accused NATO of placing Ukraine into a “theater of proxy war” against Russia and said Stoltenberg is trying to do something similar with North Korea by forming an Asian version of NATO, reported Breitbart News.

The sister of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, Kim Yo-jong, blasted the U.S. over its pledge to ship 31 advanced main battle tanks to Ukraine. She reportedly said the promise is crossing a “red line” and that North Korea “stand in the same trench” as the Russians in opposition to the United States.

“I express serious concern over the U.S. escalating the war situation by providing Ukraine with military hardware for a ground offensive,” Kim said, according to a statement posted by KCNA.

A senior North Korean official rejected U.S. accusations on Sunday that Pyongyang is sending weapons to Russia’s infamous Wagner Group, which Breitbart describes as a mercenary group fighting in Ukraine for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Kwon Jong-gun, who directs North Korea’s Department of U.S. Affairs, cautioned that the Biden administration is inviting a “really undesirable result” by perpetuating a “groundless rumor of arms dealing between the DPRK and Russia.”

“It is an illegal act to call into question the legitimate right to the national defense of a sovereign state. Moreover, trying to tarnish the image of the DPRK by fabricating a non-existent thing is a grave provocation that can never be allowed and that cannot but trigger its reaction,” Jong-gun said.

Russian Foreign Ministry Sergey Lavrov similarly warned the U.S. of harsh consequences to come should it move forth with plans for nuclear exercises in South Korea.