SEOUL, June 5, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - North Korean state media slammed French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday over "imprudent" comments on Pyongyang's ties with Moscow, calling them "shocking claptrap".

In a commentary shared by North Korea's state news agency KCNA, analyst Choe Ju Hyun took aim at comments by the French leader during the recent Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.

Macron suggested that the NATO defence alliance could become involved in Asia if China did not do more to press North Korea to stop sending forces to help Russia's war in Ukraine.

"It is a mistake if Macron thinks that he can cloak NATO's aggressive and wicked intention to put dirty military shoes on the Asia-Pacific region by taking issue with the DPRK-Russia cooperative relations," the commentary said, referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Macron, Choe wrote, was "publicly recognized as a politician who loves to demonstrate his existence by making a series of shocking claptrap and unrealistic assertions unmindful of consequences".

"France is obsessed with extreme self-assurance and is unable to properly judge the situation," Choe added.

The analyst urged France to "realize as early as possible that its contradictory behaviour keeps it from being recognized as a representative of Europe".

North Korea has become one of Russia's main allies during Moscow's more than three-year-long Ukraine offensive, sending thousands of troops to help the Kremlin oust Ukrainian forces from its Kursk border region.