Kim Yo-jong calls Japan's military moves 'grave threat,' vows additional military options

Kim Yo-jong, director of the Korean Workers' Party's General Affairs Department, said Wednesday that Japan's pursuit of first-strike capabilities constitutes a "grave threat to international peace and stability" and warned that North Korea "will set additional clear military options in response to Japan's transformation."

In a statement carried by KCNA that day, Kim said Japan is "accelerating its transformation into a war state, riding the sharp and volatile currents of the current international situation in which global geopolitical conflicts and bloc confrontations are intensifying."

Earlier, Japan's Defense Ministry announced that the Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyer Chokai conducted a test launch of a Tomahawk cruise missile in the Pacific on July 28 (local time), with support from the US Navy. It was the first time Japan had fired a Tomahawk.

Kim said the move "demonstrates that Japan's scheme to officially acquire first-strike capabilities — in violation of international law and its own constitution, which prohibit the possession of war potential, the right to belligerency and the right of combat — through the revision of its National Security Strategy in late 2022, is now entering the stage of actual criminal conduct."

She said it had "become even clearer that Japan's conduct on the international stage as a supposed 'peace-loving nation' — while branding the defensive military buildup measures of neighboring countries as 'threats' and 'provocations' — was ultimately nothing more than a camouflage tactic to conceal its ambitions for military expansion."

Kim also pointed to the United States as the force behind Japan's military moves. "What is even more impossible to overlook is that the United States stands behind Japan's extremely dangerous military agitation," she said.

She closed by reiterating North Korea's intent to set additional military options. "We will never stand by and watch Japan's military evolution, which could pose a grave threat to the security of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea," Kim said.