North Korea’s foreign ministry calls Japan’s new $320 billion security strategy “wrong and dangerous,” and promises a response.
North Korea has denounced Japan’s planned military buildup and vowed to take action against what it called Tokyo’s “wrong and dangerous choice” to bolster its defense sector.
Tuesday’s statement from North Korea’s foreign ministry comes just days after Japan unveiled a new $320 billion security strategy that outlined plans for the Japanese military to mount “offensive counter capabilities,” and to respond to threats posed by China, Russia and North Korea. .
Japan’s five-year comprehensive military strategy would see Japan become the third largest military spender in the world after the United States and China.
A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry in Pyongyang said in a report carried by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) that Japan’s new security strategy formalizes the “new policy of aggression” and fundamentally changes the security environment of East Asia.
In response to Japan’s move of “unfair and excessive ambition,” the spokeswoman said, North Korea “will continue to show how concerned and dissatisfied we are with practical measures.”
He criticized the US spokesperson for “glorifying and agitating Japan’s rearmament and re-invasion plan,” adding that Washington had no right to make an issue with Pyongyang’s efforts to bolster its defenses.
North Korea’s efforts to modernize its military capabilities have included a record number of ballistic missile launches this year, including missiles capable of carrying nuclear payloads and with varying ranges that can reach the mainland United States and its allies South Korea and Japan.
North Korea claimed on Monday that it had made progress in its efforts to acquire a spy satellite, saying it had launched a test satellite and released low-resolution black-and-white images that showed a view from space of the South Korean capital, Seoul, and the nearby city of Incheon.
Some South Korean analysts said the images were too primitive to be satellite images, according to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency.
North Korea hit back at the criticism on Tuesday, with Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, saying it was “inappropriate and hasty” to assess her country’s satellite capabilities from just these two images.
She said Pyongyang’s efforts to develop a spy satellite was an “urgent priority directly related to our security,” adding that additional sanctions on her country would not stop such technological developments.
She added that South Korea would seek international support and “will try hard to impose additional sanctions on us.”
“But with our right to survival and development threatened, why should we be afraid of sanctions… and why should we stop?”
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