Condemning US Arms Aid to Taiwan as a Provocation, North Korea: Asia Pacific is Not a Testing Ground for War

Illustration of North Korea. (Wikimedia Commons/John Pavelka)

JAKARTA - North Korea has harshly criticized the United States' arms aid package for Taiwan, state media reported on Friday, accusing Washington of pushing tensions in the region to the "point of war".

The United States unveiled an aid package for Taiwan worth up to $345 million on Friday, when Congress authorized $1 billion in arms aid for the island as part of the 2023 budget.

In a statement carried by the official KCNA news agency, North Korea Foreign Ministry's Chinese Affairs Department General Director Maeng Yong Rim said the plan was a "dangerous political and military provocation" and a "flagrant violation" of the One China principle.

"It is the US's sinister intention to turn Taiwan into an advanced unsinkable base against China and a first-line trench to carry out its strategy of deterring China," the North Korean statement said.

Beijing claims the democratically governed island as its territory, and has repeatedly warned against any "official exchanges" between Washington and Taipei.

Meanwhile, Taiwan rejects China's claims of sovereignty and says only the Taiwanese people can determine their future.

"The Asia-Pacific region, including the Korean peninsula and the Taiwan Strait, is not a site of US military activity or a testing ground for war," the statement said, warning that the US would have to "pay a heavy price" for "provoking China's core interests".

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un met Chinese, as well as Russian, delegations in Pyongyang last week, vowing to develop ties between the two countries to a higher level.

Prior to the meeting, they reviewed Pyongyang's newest nuclear-capable missiles and attack drones during a military parade.

China's own military has been flexing its muscles around the island recently, sending dozens of fighters, bombers and other aircraft, including drones, into the skies over southern Taiwan, according to Taiwan's Defense Ministry.