Japan claims 'threats' to justify turning into military power: DPRK
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Japan is increasing its military spending at record rates under the pretext of facing regional threats after labeling China and Russia as threats in the latest defense white paper.
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Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force's Aegis guided-missile destroyers, Chokai and Kongo, leave their base in Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture for the Sea of Japan (AFP)
The recently issued defense white paper by Japan underscores its ambition to establish itself as a military power, citing supposed threats originating from its neighboring countries as a justification, the Korean Central News Agency KCNA reported on Wednesday citing a Foreign Ministry official.
"As to the 'threats from neighboring countries' mentioned by Japan so often, it is nothing but a smoke screen to justify its moves toward turning itself into a major military power," said Kim Sol Hwa, a researcher with the DPRK Foreign Ministry's Institute for Japan Studies.
Read more: US deploys 2nd submarine to South Korea, further provoking DPRK
Although Japan's defense white paper identifies China and Russia as potential threat sources, it's the US that "totally destroys the regional peace and stability" by creating a "confrontation alliance in the vast Asia-Pacific region", along with the deployment of nuclear strategic assets to the Korean Peninsula and the Taiwan Strait.
"North Korea's military activities pose an even more grave and imminent threat to Japan's national security than ever before," said Japan's Defense Ministry last week when presenting the white paper, proposing military budget increases.
The ministry revealed plans to allocate 5 trillion yen ($37 billion) to advance multi-type missile capabilities. This would be 25 times the budget spent in the past five years.
According to Ryu Kyong Chol, a researcher at North Korean Korea-Europe Association, Pyongyang sees that the West treats it as an "enemy" and continues provocatively conducting joint military exercises with South Korea, specifically France.
"Just at this time, France dispatched its fighter planes to the Korean Peninsula which is technically at war. It cannot be construed otherwise than an act of regarding the DPRK as an enemy," Ryu said.
Read more: US, S.Korea, Japan conduct missile drill in response to DPRK 'threats'
The researcher said that Paris should "set right its home situation" suffering from "the social discord" first, rather than "wasting its energies in the Asia-Pacific region."
"If it continues to run amuck without discretion in the Korean Peninsula, the biggest hotspot, as now, it will find itself in an undesirable situation."
Last week, France and Seoul carried out their first-ever joint bilateral air drills, as part of France's Pegase transcontinental exercise, which involves the deployment of aircraft in East and South Asia.
