N. Korea slams Japan’s missile reinforcement, joint drills with US
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The U.S.-Japan Keen Sword military exercise in progress in 2020 / Courtesy of the U.S. Pacific Fleet
North Korea on Tuesday criticized Japan’s push to acquire “preemptive attack” capabilities and last month’s regular military drills between Washington and Tokyo, warning that such moves would invite a “vicious cycle” of escalating regional tensions.
In an article carried by the official Korean Central News Agency, a military commentator took issue with Tokyo’s deployment of a Type 25 longer-range anti-ship missile launcher during the bilateral Keen Sword exercise that took place across Japan from Oct. 19-29.
The Type 25 missile system with a range of more than 1,000 kilometers is part of Tokyo’s efforts to bolster its “counterstrike” capabilities against potential enemy attacks.
“Japan, a defeated nation accelerating its transformation into a warfighting state after throwing off the veil of ‘pacifist state,’ persists in its moves to acquire the capability for making a preemptive attack,” the commentator said.
“Its latest example is the participation of the type 25 surface-to-ship guided missile launcher of the Ground Self-Defence Forces in the largest-ever joint military drill Keen Sword.”
North Korea argued Japan did not hide the fact that the missile launch simulation drill during the Keen Sword exercise was aimed at testing the “rapid deployment of the offensive weapon system” with the coastal areas of North Korea and China within the striking range.
The commentator also pointed out Japan’s launch of a Type 88 anti-ship missile and test-firing of a Tomahawk cruise missile earlier this year, claiming that Tokyo’s efforts to acquire capability for a preemptive attack on “neighboring countries” have assumed “more radical, undisguised and regular” aspects.
The North claimed Japan’s military power has completed its transition from “defense” to “attack.”
“The moves of the neo-militarist forces of Japan to possess the capability for making a preemptive attack … are a cancer-like factor that brings about a vicious cycle of escalating tension in the region,” the commentator said.
