North Korea blasts spike in U.S. defense budget

SEOUL, May 6 (Yonhap) -- North Korea on Wednesday criticized the U.S. government
for raising its defense budget for 2010, saying its huge defense spending prompts
Pyongyang to bolster its own military force in defense.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates recently unveiled a plan to increase
Washington's defense budget 4 percent on-year to US$534 billion for the next
fiscal year that starts in October.
North Korea's defense budget for 2009 is estimated at $540 million, according to
Seoul's Unification Ministry.
"The United States is in hostile relations with our country," the North's
official Korean Central News Agency said.
"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 report again revealed Pyongyang's discontent over 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 report 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's. Based on that report, Seoul
officials estimated the North's defense budget.
hkim@yna.co.kr
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