North Korea accuses Japan of militarism over 2025 Defence White Paper

In a fiery statement issued July 17, a senior official from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) denounced Japan’s newly released 2025 Defence White Paper, calling it a “war scenario for realising its ambition for reinvasion from A to Z.” 

The statement came from the Policy Section Chief of the Institute for Japan Studies under the North Korean Foreign Ministry and was circulated through state media, Caliber.Az reports.

The DPRK accused Japan of escalating military tensions in the region under the guise of defensive preparedness, alleging that Tokyo is laying the groundwork for preemptive military capabilities aimed at regional adversaries. “Japan, obsessed with its ambition for reinvasion, is busy securing the capability for preemptive attack,” the official said.

Japan’s 2025 Defence White Paper reportedly identifies the DPRK, China, and Russia as “urgent threats,” a characterisation North Korea denounced as “shameless sophism.” According to Pyongyang, such claims are designed to justify Japan’s growing militarisation and its support for U.S. strategic goals in the Indo-Pacific.

The North Korean statement highlighted Japan’s increased defence spending—now at its highest level in history—and its procurement of advanced weapons systems, including U.S.-made Tomahawk long-range cruise missiles, and domestically developed Type-12 surface-to-ship missiles with extended range and multi-domain capabilities.

“Japan, a war criminal state, openly declared its possession of the capability for preemptive attack… and tries to seize long-range strike means with operational radius far beyond the range of the archipelago,” the statement said, warning that such moves are destabilising the regional security architecture.

The DPRK further asserted that Japan is abandoning its post-war “exclusive defence” policy in favour of an aggressive military posture, which it claims is part of a long-standing strategic agenda pursued since Japan’s defeat in World War II.

In response to these developments, the North defended its own nuclear weapons programme as a “necessary deterrent” to counter what it called the “undisguised provocations” of the U.S. and its allies, including Japan.

“The region and the international community should heighten due vigilance against Japan’s ambition for becoming a military giant and resolutely oppose and reject it,” the statement concluded.

By Vugar Khalilov