The criticism came after NATO approved a 27 billion euro ($31 billion) program to modernize its fuel storage and distribution infrastructure, including pipelines and new facilities in the alliance’s eastern and southeastern regions.
NATO’s North Atlantic Council, the alliance’s main political decision-making body, approved the NATO Fuel Supply Chain Capability Program on July 22. NATO said the investment is intended to update existing fuel storage and distribution infrastructure and ensure that allied forces have the energy needed to maintain combat readiness.
North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency said in a commentary that NATO’s plan showed what it called the alliance’s intent to stockpile fuel and other war materials “to ignite war at any time and in any part of the world.”
“We will never tolerate NATO’s dangerous and provocative acts and will take resolute counteraction,” KCNA said.
The modernization plan comes as NATO members seek to strengthen military mobility and logistics amid concerns over a possible conflict with Russia. Politico Europe, citing two NATO diplomats, reported that ambassadors from the alliance’s 32 member states approved the plan at their final regular meeting before the summer recess.
NATO members have spent months discussing how to overhaul a roughly 10,000-kilometer pipeline network built during the Cold War, according to the report. The plan is designed to connect existing fuel infrastructure in Western Europe with newer NATO members in Eastern and Northern Europe.
The project, which includes pipeline modernization and the construction of energy storage facilities, is expected to take up to 30 years to complete. It is also considered NATO’s largest-ever common-funded project.
A NATO diplomat was quoted by Politico as saying, “A stronger NATO starts with pipelines.”
Some members had initially raised concerns over the cost of the project but later withdrew their objections, according to the report.
North Korea, however, argued that the plan should not be viewed solely as preparation for a possible war with Russia. KCNA claimed that NATO has been increasing its military presence in the Asia-Pacific region and conducting joint military activities with what it called North Korea’s hostile states around the Korean Peninsula.
The commentary also criticized the participation of NATO members in the recently concluded Rim of the Pacific Exercise (RIMPAC) saying it showed that NATO has “never excluded the Asia-Pacific region from its war scenario.”
“NATO has existed as a military bloc for decades, but it is unprecedented for it to carry out war preparations this openly,” KCNA said, warning that such moves would only “bring forward the time of war and shorten the time left for NATO’s destruction.”
NATO also agreed at the July 22 meeting to raise its common budget for next year to as much as 6.5 billion euros, up from 5.3 billion euros this year, and approved its common investment priorities for the next five years.
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