DPRK says to set up additional military options due to Japan's moves

PYONGYANG - A senior official of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) said the country will set up additional military options due to Japan's latest military developments, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported Wednesday.

In a statement carried by KCNA, Kim Yo-jong, department director of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, denounced Japan's latest military moves, including a recent test-fire of Tomahawk long-range cruise missiles, the launch of offensive missiles in the Philippines in May, as well as the deployment in March of type 12 surface-to-ship guided missiles and type 25 high-speed gliding projectiles in Kumamoto and Shizuoka prefectures respectively and a plan to develop and introduce an unmanned submarine capable of attacking a warship.

The DPRK official called Japan's missile deployment "the prelude to the possession of the capability for preemptive attack," the KCNA report said.

Possessing many different kinds of long-range strike means, Japan is set to "reorganize its overall armed forces as a formation of preemptive attack and overseas aggression," Kim said in the statement.

Since Japan has been denying and embellishing its history of aggression, there is no guarantee that the country will not inflict tragic disaster upon humankind again if it possesses preemptive attack capability, she said.

As Japan is accelerating its transformation into a "war state," and taking advantage of global geopolitical conflicts and inter-camp confrontation, Kim called on the international community to "heighten vigilance against the reckless military ambition" and never allow Japan to become a military giant, the statement said.