SEOUL, May 15. /TASS/. Japan's rapprochement with NATO and its intention to become a "military giant" would undermine regional stability and could lead to the country’s "second ruin," Kim Sol-hwa, a researcher at the Institute for Japan Studies of the North's Foreign Ministry, said in an English-language dispatch released by the Korean Central News Agency.

According to the expert, the Japanese authorities have long sought military cooperation with NATO and now point to the events in Ukraine as an excuse. Japan is to open a NATO liaison office in Tokyo and regularly attend its meetings. All this indicates that NATO's attempts to penetrate into the Asia-Pacific Region through "collusion" with Tokyo have reached a dangerous level, Kim emphasizes.

Japan's closer engagement and ties with NATO - synonymous with war and confrontation - will only undermine regional peace and stability, causing instability and isolation of [Japan's] islands. Japan should understand that its military collusion with outside forces and its plan to become a "military giant" will cause the country's "second ruin," Kim said.

"What should not be overlooked is the fact that the black-hearted design of the US to hold its hegemonic position in the Asia-Pacific Region by fabricating 'Asian-version NATO' lurks behind the worrisome Japan-NATO cohesion," she stressed.

According to the expert, Washington has sought to create a NATO analogue in East Asia since the end of World War II, and after the events in Ukraine it is trying to turn the organization into a global alliance by encouraging cooperation among its allies.

The US has a "sinister" intention to lay huge siege to China and Russia by "inveigling" Japan, South Korea and others into exclusive security cooperation blocs and linking them with chauvinistic security cooperation groups, such as AUKUS and Quad, and pegging them to NATO, Kim believes.