DPRK slams Japan's 2025 defense white paper

PYONGYANG - The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Thursday slammed Japan's 2025 defense white paper, calling it "a war scenario for realizing its ambition for reinvasion from A to Z", the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported Friday.

It is the "common knowledge" that Japan has revised its National Security Strategy to include "preemptive attack capabilities", accelerating both the development of domestically produced long-range missiles and the procurement of foreign-made ones in recent years, the KCNA said, citing the policy section chief of the Institute for Japan Studies under DPRK's foreign ministry.

Japan raised its defense budget to a record high in 2025, ramping up its military capabilities to full scale, the report said, adding that as part of the effort, Tokyo is purchasing approximately 3.7 billion US dollars worth of medium-range air-to-air missiles, long-range air-to-surface cruise missiles, and related equipment from Washington.

Japan is also considering deploying 400 US-made Tomahawk long-range cruise missiles and Type 12 surface-to-ship missiles, which extend the range to more than 1,000 km, said the report.

Japan, which has long presented itself as a "peace state" under the principle of "exclusive defense", is now working to develop capabilities for offensive operations, including long-range strikes and cross-domain warfare, the KCNA said.

Japan's defense white paper is "a war scenario for realizing its ambition for reinvasion from A to Z and its moves for turning Japan into a military giant seriously threatening regional peace and security can never be tolerated", it said.