In this photo taken on March 13, 2023, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, left, speaks as U.S. President Joe Biden listens during a news conference with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, at Naval Base Point Loma, in San Diego, as they unveil, AUKUS, a trilateral security pact between Australia, Britain, and the United States. AP-Yonhap

North Korea on Thursday denounced the United States for bolstering another "nuclear alliance" in the Asia-Pacific region over Australia's move to introduce nuclear-powered submarines from Washington via the AUKUS security partnership.

The North's condemnation came as Australia has made its first payment of $500 million to the United States over its plan to buy Virginia-class nuclear-powered submarines under the trilateral AUKUS security partnership also involving Britain.

"This is not a just financial transaction, but it is the activation of another nuclear alliance led by the U.S. in earnest," the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in its commentary.

"The move is a dangerous attempt to further worsen the political and military environment in the Asia-Pacific region that has already remained unstable."

North Korea also claimed the U.S. would be able to build multilayers of a nuclear siege against its enemies in the region if it fully creates a "nuclear alliance" called AUKUS on top of Washington's similar trilateral partnership scheme with South Korea and Japan.

"The U.S. should contemplate what consequences its military adventurism that will bring a nuclear cloud to the Asia-Pacific region would be," the KCNA noted.

North Korea has vowed to bolster its nuclear forces since U.S. President Donald Trump returned to the White House in January. At a year-end party meeting in December, the North pledged to take the "toughest" counteraction strategy against Washington. (Yonhap)