Seoul, Jan 20 (IANS): North Korea on Monday denounced Japan's recent opening of a new diplomatic mission to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), accusing the country of dangerously escalating the military tension in the region.

The North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) issued the criticism in an article attributed to an international security analyst, following Japan's formal inauguration of an independent mission to NATO last week to bolster cooperation.

"Japan set up its independent mission in NATO at a time when the security environment in the Asia-Pacific region is more seriously threatened due to the US provocative military hegemony," the KCNA said. "This is a dangerous act of adding new instability to the regional situation."

The KCNA also accused Japan of "extremely escalating the military tension in the region" by tightening military cooperation with NATO, "pursuant to the US strategy for world domination to expand NATO's sphere of influence into the Asia-Pacific region."

It also called Japan "a war criminal state" and "an anti-peace force," accusing it of threatening the Asia-Pacific region and the rest of the world through its "admission to aggressive military blocs, undisguised arms buildup and ceaseless war drills."

"The tightened nexus" between Japan and NATO is a serious threat to international peace and security, Yonhap news agency reported quoting KCNA.

Since Russia's war against Ukraine and its growing ties with North Korea, NATO has strengthened its links with Japan, South Korea and other countries in the Indo-Pacific region. North Korea has frequently responded with sharp criticism to such moves.