Kang Jin Song, international affairs analyst of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, issued the following article, titled, “What is Washington’s scheme to extend the sphere of alliance aimed at?” :

The US is now intensifying its scheme to expand and strengthen military blocs in the Asia-Pacific region.

As is known, the US-Britain-Australia tripartite defence authorities talks on April 8 made public a joint statement on examining a proposal for promoting cooperation between AUKUS and Japan in the field of ultra-modern technology. And Biden confirmed Japan’s participation in AUKUS at the US-Japan summit held in Washington on April 10.

It means that the extension of AUKUS and the preferential participation of Japan have become formal.

The US defends itself saying that cooperation between AUKUS and Japan is limited to the field related to eight core defence technologies, including artificial intelligence and cyber, and that it’s not aimed at increasing the number of AUKUS members, but the danger of Japan’s participation in AUKUS is causing tension among not only the regional countries but the whole international community.

In September 2021, AUKUS was forged as a tripartite security cooperation body involving the United States, Britain and Australia. Since its founding, it has been called a nuclear mine planted in the waters of the Asia-Pacific as “the Anglo-Saxon nuclear submarine alliance” for seeking nuclear supremacy in the Asia-Pacific region by detouring the international nuclear non-proliferation system.

Judging from the fact that the extension of AUKUS has become formal and the first candidate for its membership is Japan, a state of aggression and war criminal which tried to develop nuclear weapons during the Second World War and has covertly beefed up its capability for manufacturing nuclear weapons after the war, this poses a serious problem in terms of security environment of the whole world including the Asia-Pacific region.

When the issue of extending AUKUS began to be put on the table, Britain and Australia reportedly took a skeptical view, pointing out that Japan failed to fully protect sensitive information.

Although Canada and New Zealand, members of “Five Eyes”―an information-sharing body of Anglo-Saxons―were potential candidates for “AUKUS+”, Japan has been designated as a candidate member of AUKUS, which is attributable to the US pressure and persistent persuasion, according to experts.

Clear is the intention of the US that persists in involving Japan in AUKUS.

It is the sinister intention of the US to make Japan, a vanquished country which revised the “Pacifist Constitution” and is making frantic moves to beef up the forces of aggression under the cloak of “possessing counterattack capability,” obsessed by nationalism, a crew member of a confrontation ship called AUKUS and put it at the outpost line of the anti-China pressure and push the nuclear minefield in the Asia-Pacific region closer to China.

Most experts comment that the technical cooperation between AUKUS and Japan, promoted under the control of the US, will lead sooner or later to Japan’s full membership and to the additional admission of other potential candidate countries.

The Biden administration recently held a tripartite summit of the US, Japan and the Philippines in the wake of the US-Japan summit to call for the strengthened security cooperation between Manila and Tokyo, and Canberra and Seoul. This is mainly aimed at building double and triple infrastructure for implementing the “integrated deterrence strategy” against China by ultimately putting together multiple tools designed for achieving supremacy existing in the Asia-Pacific region in a “latticed” way.

The reality goes to prove once again that the “competition accompanied by dialogue” with China and the “installation of a guard rail” in bilateral relations, claimed by US officials, are nothing but deceptive slogans and their thinking and practice are oriented to anti-China confrontation from A to Z.

Owing to the establishment of a “small group” of the US whose arch enemy is China and its ceaseless attempt to expand the group, the Asia-Pacific region, where opportunities and potentials for development are richer than any other region of the world, is turning into a theatre of muscle-flexing and a touch-and-go nuclear minefield, and the ensuing immediate and prospective security burden is to be heavily placed on the regional and international community.

The peace camp in the region and the rest of the world should heighten vigilance against the reckless moves of Washington to frantically expand its alliance sphere without limits, targeting a certain state.

KCNA