North Korea has lashed out at Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) for its recent decision to revise the constitution in 2025, saying, “It has rapidly emerged as the region’s most threatening war-mongering force and is on a direct path to re-militarization.
On Friday, North Korea’s state-run media, Korean Central News Agency, published a commentary titled “The self-destructive recklessness of militaristic poisonous snakes trying to change the country’s fundamentals” in Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of the Workers’ Party of North Korea.
The commentary criticized Japan for its obsession with creating numerous evil laws under various pretexts to circumvent constitutional restrictions, even 80 years after its defeat in World War II. It also condemned Japan’s systematic expansion of the Self-Defense Forces’ military capabilities.
They also asserted that Japan has established a legal foundation for overseas deployment of its Self-Defense Forces through multiple constitutional amendments, claiming that “Japan has thoroughly transformed into a war state with a fully-fledged invasion force.”
It cautioned that Japan’s malicious involvement in U.S. political and military confrontations against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea cannot be overlooked. It claimed that Japan aims to direct its re-militarization efforts towards the Korean Peninsula, citing recent U.S.-South Korea-Japan trilateral aerial exercises as evidence.
North Korea warned that Japan’s renewed pursuit of militarism is tantamount to repeating its history of defeat. It added that attempts to change the fundamental nature of the country would soon prove to be a self-destructive endeavor.
In recent years, Japan has seen growing public support for amending its pacifist constitution, which does not recognize the right of belligerency and the maintenance of military forces. Article 9 of the Japanese constitution has long been a point of contention because the Self-Defense Forces violate the Constitution, as paragraph 1 includes permanent renunciation of war and the use of military forces, and paragraph 2 includes the prohibition of land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential. In response to these debates, the ruling LDP of Japan has been pushing for constitutional amendments to recognize the Self-Defense Forces and introduce emergency provisions explicitly.