The full text of the statement “The Possession of Preemptive Strike Capability by Japan, a War Criminal State, Is a Grave Threat Destroying International Peace and Stability” issued by Kim Yo Jong, Deputy Department Director of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, on the 5th, is as follows.

Riding the acute and changing trend of the current international situation where global geopolitical clashes and confrontations between camps are intensifying, Japan, a war criminal state, is accelerating its transformation into a war state.

Several days ago, Japan conducted a test launch of a “Tomahawk” long-range cruise missile loaded on the Aegis destroyer “Chokai” belonging to the Japanese Maritime “Self-Defense Force” in the Pacific Ocean.

Prior to this, last May, Japan took part in a US-led joint military exercise off the northern coast of Luzon Island in the Philippines and, for the first time since its defeat, carried out the launch of an offensive missile outside its territory.

These military moves prove that Japan's manoeuvre to officially possess a preemptive strike capability through the revision of the “National Security Strategy” at the end of 2022, in violation of international law and its own constitution that prohibit it from having war potential, the right of belligerency and the right of engagement, is entering the stage of actual criminal acts.

Last March, Japan opened the curtain on the possession of a preemptive strike capability by deploying in the actual battlefields the Type 12 surface-to-ship missile, whose range has been extended to about 1 000 km, and the Type 25 high-speed gliding bomb, which flies at hypersonic speed at high altitude, at the Ground “Self-Defense Force” bases in Kumamoto and Shizuoka Prefectures respectively.

Recently, Japan has deployed the launchers of Type 12 surface-to-ship missiles and unmanned reconnaissance aircraft for locating targets on islands in the Pacific Ocean, is accelerating the delivery of cruise missiles to be mounted on the “F-35A” fighters of the Air “Self-Defense Force”, and is also scheming the development and introduction of unmanned underwater craft with anti-ship attack capability under the pretext of so-called “strengthening the defence system in the Pacific”.

The mass acquisition of various long-range strike means, whose unexpectedness of preemptive strike has been enhanced and operational radius has been greatly expanded, and their actual deployment in all-dimensional battle spaces encompassing ground, sea, underwater and air are reorganizing Japan's overall disposition of armed forces literally into a preemptive strike type and an overseas invasion type.

It has become even clearer now that Japan's behaviour on the international stage, pretending to be a “peace-loving state” while branding the self-defensive national defence reinforcement measures of neighbouring countries as “threats” and “provocations”, was ultimately nothing more than a camouflage tactic to conceal its ambition for military great-power status.

What is more grave and can never be overlooked is that the United States stands behind these danger-fraught military moves of Japan.

It is no secret that it was the United States which put the “Tomahawk” long-range cruise missiles into the hands of Japan, refitted the ship so that they could be loaded and operated, and prepared all the conditions and circumstances related to the test launch including the launch site.

In Europe, the United States is driving NATO forward to threaten Russia's strategic space, and is trampling on peace and security in the Middle East. In the Asia-Pacific region, it is seriously infringing upon the security interests of the anti-imperialist independent countries by putting its underlings such as Japan and the Republic of Korea forward as shock brigades.

Owing to the exclusive and aggressive foreign policy of the United States, which has set the maintenance of its hegemonic position as its overall goal, the military expansion of Japan in the Asia-Pacific region, which is turning into the world's biggest hotspot, cannot but be a dangerous development that seriously threatens international peace and stability.

Although Japan did not disclose concrete information such as the maritime area where the test launch was conducted this time, the number of missiles, and the targets of the range, the undeniable fact that it was a long-range weapons test that put the neighbouring countries including our Republic within its striking range illuminates this.

When a lethal weapon is placed in the hands of the descendants of the militarists who inherited the genes of cunning and aggressiveness, an unpleasant thing is bound to happen.

There is no guarantee whatsoever that a tragic disaster will not again be inflicted on humanity if the preemptive strike capability is seized by Japan, a war criminal state that has been stealthily preparing the political, military and legal foothold for reinvasion while denying and embellishing its history of aggression.

The international community must heighten its vigilance against the reckless military ambitions of the descendants of the war criminal state, who are absorbed in realizing the futile old dream of the “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere” with the backing of the United States, and must never open the path for Japan to become a military great power.

The voice of condemnation and warning alone cannot cool down the heated reinvasion ambition of the island nation tribe.

One effective method is to make Japan itself feel that its own security has been exposed to a greater danger due to the excessive greed it has displayed.

It must be made to surely regret.

We will never remain a passive onlooker to Japan's military evolution process that can become a serious threat to the security of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

We clearly affirm, as entrusted, that the armed forces and military leadership of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea will additionally set up a clear military option corresponding to Japan's transformation today.