North Korea blasts increase in U.S. defense budget

North Korea blasts increase in U.S. defense budget
(ATTN: CLARIFIES source of report in 4th para, TRIMS lead)
SEOUL, May 6 (Yonhap) -- North Korea on Wednesday criticized the U.S. government
for raising its military budget for 2010, claiming Pentagon's huge spending
prompts Pyongyang to bolster its own defense force.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates recently announced Washington will increase
its defense budget by 4 percent on-year to US$534 billion for the next fiscal
year that starts in October.
North Korea's estimated defense budget for 2009 is $540 million, according to
Seoul's Unification Ministry.
"The United States is in hostile relations with our country," the Rodong Sinmun,
the North's major newspaper published by the Workers' Party, said in a commentary
carried by the Korean Central News Agency.
"Not a small portion of the U.S. defense budget goes to attempts to threaten and
invade our country by its military means. To cope with the accumulating military
threat from the U.S., it is exceedingly just and indispensable that our nation
continues to bolster our self-defense power," it said.
The commentary again revealed Pyongyang's discontent with the Barack Obama
administration for raising the defense budget. North Korea on Monday blasted the
Obama administration as "nothing different from the preceding administration" of
George W. Bush for trying to "stifle" it.
"Whoever, which party gains power and whether or not the country has an economic
crisis, the U.S. government fails to stop the arms race," it said.
The paper called the U.S. "the main culprit of the new arms race around the world."
North Korea's state media said on April 9 that its defense budget approved by the
parliament for this year accounts for 15.8 percent of the government's entire
spending. The portion was the same as last year.
hkim@yna.co.kr
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