North Korea criticized Japan’s new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on Thursday, calling her a figure representing the right-wing conservative faction and a person who glorified the criminal acts of Japanese imperialism.
The Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of the Workers’ Party, stated in an article titled, What Do the Movements in Japanese Political Circles Suggest? on Page 6 that day stating that she has a history of justifying visits to the Yasukuni Shrine, a symbol of militarism.
The newspaper condemned Prime Minister Takaichi’s pledge during the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) presidential election to enshrine the Self-Defense Forces in the constitution, stating its purpose was to turn Japan into a full-fledged war-making nation through unlimited military expansion and constitutional revision, thereby finally realizing the old dream of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere that was never achieved in the past. It also condemned the Japan Restoration Party, which formed a new coalition government with the LDP, for stating that Japan can be said to have compensated for its war crimes over the 80 years since the war ended.
It further sharpened its criticism, asserting that it is clear that the direction of Japan’s political rightward shift will absolutely not change, and Japan will proceed down an even more perilous path.
Prime Minister Takaichi, Japan’s first female prime minister, officially took office on October 21. She is one of the LDP’s leading far-right figures and has frequently visited the Yasukuni Shrine, where Class-A war criminals from the Pacific War are enshrined.