North Korea on the 1st condemned the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) decision to overhaul its military fuel transport system as a "war-preparations maneuver," warning that it "will never tolerate NATO's extremely dangerous and provocative acts and will deliver a resolute counterstrike."
In a commentary released the same day, the Korean Central News Agency, referring to the "NATO fuel supply chain capability program plan," said, "NATO's wicked and sinister intent is to stockpile fuel and other war materials sufficiently and ignite the flames of war at any moment in any place in the world," and stated accordingly.
On the 22nd, the North Atlantic Council, NATO's political decision-making body, approved the "NATO fuel supply chain capability program plan," a 27 billion euros (about 45.3 trillion won) initiative aimed at modernizing NATO's existing fuel storage and distribution infrastructure.
The news agency said, "In recent years, NATO has been thrusting even the strategic assets of its member states into the Asia-Pacific region with increasing brazenness to flaunt its military presence," and noted on the Korean Peninsula issue that it is "colluding with our hostile countries to ceaselessly stage reckless war drills in the areas around the Korean Peninsula," removing any time or season.
It went on, "It has been decades since NATO emerged as a military bloc, but there is no precedent for such an open push for war preparations as now," stressing, "This brings forward the time of war and shortens the time to NATO's ruin."