North Korea slams Japan's plan to raise defense spending
A North Korean researcher said Japan's plan to nearly double defense spending would worsen the country's security and hurt its economy.
North Korea criticized Japan's plan to boost defense spending on Friday, saying the move would hurt Japan's economic recovery and burden its people, South Korea's national news agency Yonhap reported.
The criticism appeared in an article carried by the official Korean Central News Agency, KCNA, which quoted a researcher at the Institute for Japan Studies under North Korea's foreign ministry.
The remarks followed reports that Tokyo is considering nearly doubling its defense expenditures over the next five years.
Reuters reported on Monday that Japan is weighing a figure of 70 trillion yen (US$444 billion) to 80 trillion yen for the five years starting in April 2027, about 1.8 times the amount set under the current five-year plan, which began in fiscal 2023.
The researcher said increased military spending would "impose heavy hardships" on Japanese people, rather than improving the country's security environment.
The researcher called Japan's move an "anachronistic calculation" that would only worsen the country's security situation.
He added that Japan would have no need to worry about its security if it settled its past crimes and sought peace with its neighbors.
North Korea has long reacted sharply to Japan's military plans, arguing they could worsen a regional arms race, raise tensions and recall Tokyo's past militarism.
Japan has been expanding its armaments amid an increasingly assertive China and a muscle-flexing North Korea, a departure from its defense-oriented policy.
Japan colonized the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945, a period that still shapes how Seoul and Pyongyang view Tokyo's military ambitions.
