Arab News Japan

TOKYO: North Korea has accused Japan of increased militarism and wanting to create a “second Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.”

The Director of the Policy Office of the Japanese Research Institute in North Korea’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Thursday stating that “the successors of the samurai, who have upheld the banner of ‘exclusively defensive defense’ in the international community and pretended to be a ‘peaceful nation’ have now fully revealed the poisonous fangs of militarism.”

The attack on Japan was prompted by media reports that the Japanese government is planning to deploy domestically produced long-range missiles in southern Japan next year to acquire “enemy base attack capability.” The statement said Japan is also developing a ballistic missile with a range of 3,000 km.

“Japan’s possession of a pre-emptive attack capability is a direct product of a policy of re-aggression aimed at realizing the ambition of a second ‘Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere,’ which it has relentlessly pursued for the 80 years since its defeat” in World War II. Japan’s war of expansionism in the 20^thcentury was supposed to lead to what Japan termed the “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.”

“Japan, a war criminal nation that is highly likely to commit the same crime again due to its complete denial, beautification and whitewashing of its history of aggression, is now taking ‘bold steps’ to prepare itself for a pre-emptive attack capability beyond the borders of its archipelago,” the statement said.

It added that Japan is “obsessed with ambitions of overseas expansion” and the North would defend itself with the “most lethal means.”

In a separate press release issued by North Korea’s Ministry of National Defense on Thursday, North Korea accused the United States “and South Korean military thugs” of carrying out military exercises “aimed at invading our country.”

“The accumulation of reckless military maneuvers by the United States and South Korea, driven by the delusion that they could endanger the sovereignty and security of nuclear-armed states, could inevitably bring about the most serious consequences that they do not want,” the statement said.

On Friday, Cho Chol-soo, the Permanent Representative of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to the United Nations Office in Geneva issued a statement accusing the US of sending out a “strange questionnaire” to UN agencies and non-governmental organizations aimed at clarifying the impact of the agencies’ activities on US security and whether they cooperate with communist, socialist, totalitarian or anti-American forces.

“This questionnaire, which can be described as an ‘open threat,’ is circumstantial evidence that the United States is trying to subordinate international organizations to its command baton and to implement its ‘America First’ policy, which serves its own interests,” Cho stated.

The statement said the behavior of the US appears to be “a 21st century version of McCarthyism.” It added: “The international community should be on high alert to ensure that international organizations, including the United Nations, are not swayed by the unilateralism and tyranny of the United States.”