North Korea‘s recent NATO summit, called by the United States and its allies, sparked condemnation from the North on Saturday for its efforts to form military alliances and speed up arms buildups.

Pyongyang accused NATO leaders of portraying North Korea’s exercise of its legitimate sovereign rights as a threat, the foreign ministry said in ​a statement carried on state media KCNA.

The alliance showed more readiness for bloc-to-bloc confrontation by ramping up arms purchases and military cooperation with allies in the Asia-Pacific region, the ministry said. 

European NATO allies are being pressured by U.S. President Donald Trump to take on more responsibility for NATO defence as officials announced over $50 billion in military procurement and industrial agreements at Tuesday’s NATO summit in Turkey.

Dr Lee Jae Myung, South Korea’s President and rival to Pyongyang, said on the sidelines of the summit that he would like Pyongyang and Seoul to collaborate more in R&D, particularly on high-tech products, and in the production of arms systems.

The summit demonstrated that NATO was a military alliance for war and confrontation, seeking “exclusive geopolitical interests” instead of “promoting peace and security in Europe and in the Asia-Pacific,” North Korea said.

However, Pyongyang is convinced that first the denuclearisation push should be directed at so-called efforts by South Korea and Japan to develop their own nuclear weapons under the protection of the U.S. and the nuclear ambition of “NATO members” participating in nuclear-sharing arrangements in the alliance, the ministry said.

It would defend North Korea’s sovereignty and security interests, and regional peace, with the responsible exercise of its sovereign rights, it said.

On Friday, KCNA reported that North Korea has made decisions on measures for “modernisation” of its military under leader Kim Jong Un and strengthening its nuclear forces “quantitatively and qualitatively.