The policy office chief of the Institute for Japanese Studies under the DPRK Foreign Ministry on March 20 issued the following press statement titled “Japan’s reckless possession of preemptive attack capability will only expose the archipelago as a common target of regional countries”:

The geopolitical crises caused by the US are increasing the danger of the outbreak of a new large-scale war in different parts of the world. Against this backdrop, Japan, obsessed with the ambition for overseas expansion, has further accelerated its militarist moves, attracting the attention of the world public.

According to media, the Japanese government is planning to deploy home-produced long-range missiles for action in the Kyushu area in the southwestern part of the archipelago in March 2026 in order to “secure the capability of attacking enemy bases.”

Such missiles are a modified version of type-12 surface-to-sea guided missiles possessed by Japan’s Ground “Self-Defence Force,” which are intended for attack even on the ground targets within about 1 000km range, and the DPRK and the coastal areas of China are reportedly within their striking range.

Earlier, the Japanese Ministry of Defence announced that it would deploy in 2026 high-speed gliding projectiles, a hypersonic weapon which proved successful in a test-fire. It also opened to public the research and manufacture of a new-type ballistic missile with a range of 3 000 km.

Moreover, Japan secured the US approval for the sale of medium-range air-to-air missiles and long-range air-to-ground cruise missiles and is putting spurs on the building of long-range missile force while seeking to deploy the US-made long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles.

This clearly shows that Japan’s possession of preemptive attack capability, formulated through the revised “national security strategy” at the end of 2022, is at the final stage and the descendants of the samurais, who had so far pretended to be a “pacifist nation” under the signboard of “exclusive defence” before the international community, have fully revealed their wild ambition of militarism.

Japan’s possession of the capability for preemptive attack is an immediate product of the reinvasion policy to realize its ambition for the second “Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere,” persistently pursued by Japan regarding it as a strategic goal while whetting a sword for revenge for 80 years since its defeat.

It is not a secret that the successive regimes of Japan have misled the public opinion with such an absurd interpretation that the “possession of the capability of attacking enemy bases” is within the scope of “self-defence,” claiming that it is not the purport of the Constitution to sit and wait for self-destruction, and worked hard for its realization.

Not content with having frequently staged joint military drills for aggression by drawing foreign forces from other continents into the Asia-Pacific region to constantly incite war fever, Japan is seeking to deploy even long-range strike means capable of rapidly attacking specific countries in the region any moment. This clearly shows that Japan’s military expansion has been developed into an extremely grave stage.

Japan, a war criminal state which is most likely to repeat its crime as it has totally denied and justified its past history of aggression, is going reckless to get the capability for preemptive attack on other country’s territory beyond the borders of its archipelago in the near future. Such a “bold action” is a dangerous provocation that will bring about constant escalation of tension by sowing the seed of new military conflict in Northeast Asia.

The rumour about “threat from its surroundings,” so zealously clamoured by Japan, is only for providing a pretext to cover up its reckless preparations for reinvasion going beyond its own defence demands, as illustrated by all-time high military spending year-on-year, frantic securement of preemptive attack means, constant strengthening of the Japan-US military alliance and multilateral collusion and nexus with NATO forces.

Japan has worked hard to turn itself into a major military power, crying out for the “free and open Indo-Pacific,” an expanded version of the “Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere.” Such moves make one keenly realize that the “imperial Japanese army,” which inflicted indelible wounds on the peoples in the Asia-Pacific region, is being reborn.

All the facts go to clearly prove once again that all military means and various forms of movement directly targeting the DPRK as well as the aggressive and challenging consciousness against it are an object to be wiped out and that the DPRK efforts for bolstering up its defence capabilities are an indispensable contribution to thoroughly containing the provocations of enemy countries and maintaining the strategic balance and stability in the region.

Japan’s reckless possession of preemptive attack capability to put neighbouring countries within the striking range while seeking a chance for reinvasion will, on the contrary, expose its archipelago to the attack by righteous regional countries as a common target.

KCNA