North Korea’s Kim Yo Jong slams Japan's Tomahawk missile test. What's inside Tokyo’s defence white paper?
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "North Korea’s Kim Yo Jong slams Japan's Tomahawk missile test. What's inside Tokyo’s defence white paper?")
Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un, attends wreath laying ceremony at Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum in Hanoi, March 2, 2019. Photograph: (AFP)
Kim Yo Jong condemned Japan's Tomahawk missile tests and military build-up, warning North Korea will adopt additional military options. Tokyo’s defence white paper framed China, Russia, and North Korea as major security threats.
North Korea’s Kim Yo Jong has warned that Pyongyang will consider “additional military options” in response to Japan’s growing military capabilities. The statement came after Tokyo’s recent test of a US-made Tomahawk cruise missile, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). A day earlier, Japan released its latest defence white paper, which outlined plans to strengthen its military capabilities while identifying China, Russia and North Korea as the country’s primary security threats.
In a statement carried by KCNA on Wednesday (Aug 5), Kim, the influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, accused Japan of abandoning its defensive posture and transforming its Self-Defence Forces into a military capable of launching pre-emptive strikes and conducting overseas operations.
Kim referred to Japan’s recent Tomahawk cruise missile test conducted from the Aegis destroyer Chokai in the Pacific Ocean. She also cited other missile tests and Japan’s participation in a US-led joint military exercise in the Philippines in May as evidence of what she described as Tokyo’s military expansion.
She accused the United States of enabling Japan’s military build-up by supplying Tomahawk missiles, modifying Japanese naval vessels to operate them and supporting missile tests.
“The US is behind such dangerous military moves of Japan,” Kim said, according to KCNA.
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Kim, who heads the record-keeping department of North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party, argued that Japan’s acquisition of long-range strike capabilities placed North Korea and other neighbouring countries within striking distance. She said Pyongyang would establish “additional military options” to counter what it views as potential security threats from Japan, but did not provide further details.
She also warned that North Korea would respond in ways that would make Japan “feel that its security has been exposed to greater danger” and said, “We should make it regret.”
