N. Korea slams Japan's defense paper as justification for military buildup

SEOUL, Aug. 11 (Yonhap) -- North Korea on Tuesday denounced Japan's latest defense white paper, calling it an attempt to justify the country's military buildup and describing it as legal basis for "the operation of war machine." Kang Won-chol, an international security analyst, made the claims in an article published by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) and the Rodong Sinmun, the most widely read newspaper in the North. Kang said the white paper came out at a time when "Japan has been rushing headlong into militarization, seized with an ambition for reinvasion." He argued Japan had "groundlessly" described North Korea as a "serious and imminent threat" in the white paper to justify its "reckless" military buildup. "It is nothing but an act of turning black into white that Japan stipulated the 'threat' from neighboring countries in the white paper although it has been putting spurs to the tightening of the alliance with the U. S. and its followers after setting it as a 'state policy' to negate its past crimes and realize its ambition to become a military power," he wrote. He also cited Japanese Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi's call to strengthen the country's military capabilities following the release of the white paper as evidence of Tokyo's push toward militarization. "This clearly shows how desperately he is pushing Japan into following an extremely dangerous road in the vanguard for militarization," he argued. "No matter how hard Japan tries to describe its real intention for aggression as 'defense,' it will never conceal its true colors as a root cause of endangering the peace and escalating the tensions in the region," he added. He, then, sought to justify North Korea's own military buildup, arguing strengthening its military capabilities was necessary to deter what it described as the hostile intentions of other countries. Japan published its first defense white paper under the current Sanae Takaichi government last Tuesday. The paper called for military modernization, including the integration of cutting-edge technologies, such as drones and artificial intelligence, as well as closer cooperation with allies to address growing security concerns in the region. This undated file photo shows Japanese Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi. (Yonhap) jaeyeon.woo@yna.co.kr(END)