On September 29, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade of New Zealand
expressed “deep concern”, saying the DPRK’s steps to build up its defence
capabilities are a violation of the UN Security Council’s “sanctions resolutions”
against the DPRK and pose a threat to the security and stability of the Indo-Pacific
region.
Although New Zealand keeps mum about the joint military exercises the US
stages in and around the Korean peninsula, it picked a quarrel against the DPRK’s
measures to bolster up self-reliant defence capabilities, not targeting it. Its argument
has no validity, only revealing its true colours as a pro-American stooge pursuing
submission to the US.
It is a matter belonging to our right of self-defence to stage routine drills for
building up self-reliant defence capabilities at a time when we directly confront with
the US, the biggest nuclear power in the world which has staged large-scale
aggressive war games in and around the Korean peninsula by mobilizing huge
strategic assets every year while constantly stationing different kinds of military
hardware and troops in south Korea.
New Zealand, which held on to an independent stand while giving up the ANZUS
union against shipping in the US-made nukes into the country in the 1980s, has
taken an active part in joint military games led by the US and its allies, including
“RIMPAC” and “Pitch Black”, in recent years and the prime minister of New Zealand
took part in the NATO summit for the first time in late June this year. It shows that
the country is trying to go under the US defence umbrella again today when it has
been 35 years since it quit the ANZUS treaty.
In June 1986, the then New Zealand Prime Minister Lange said that hostility
toward the US and France would be better than undergoing air raids, expressing
apprehension that New Zealand would be the target of the Soviet bomber in
contingencies if the country allowed the entry of the US warship carrying nuclear
missiles.
The independent nature in the foreign policy of New Zealand is getting faint and
its pro-US colour is deepening, which suggests that today’s AUKUS may develop
into NAUKUS tomorrow.

New Zealand is well advised to stop poking its nose by considering whether the
anti-DPRK policy it pursues by toeing the US line is the right