North Korea warned Japan on Thursday against deploying long-range missiles on the southernmost Kyushu Island, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.
The policy section chief of the Institute for Japan Studies under the Foreign Ministry issued a statement harshly criticizing Japan‘s consideration of deploying the missiles.
Japanese media reported Sunday that Tokyo was considering deploying an upgraded version of the GSDF’s Type-12 land-to-ship guided missile, with an extended range of 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) in North Korea and China’s coastal range, in efforts to acquire “counterstrike capabilities” to hit enemy targets if a need arises.
“Japan, a war criminal state which has much possibility to repeat its crime as it has totally denied and justified the past history of aggression, is going reckless to get the capability for preemptive attack on other country’s territory beyond the borders of its archipelago in the near future,” said a statement from North Korea, adding that the “bold action” could bring “constant escalation of tension by sowing the spark of new military conflict in Northeast Asia.”
Pyongyang said actions targeting North Korea “are an object to be wiped out and that North Korea’s efforts for bolstering up the defense capabilities are an indispensable contribution to thoroughly containing the provocations of enemy countries and maintaining the strategic balance and stability in the region.”
“Japan’s reckless possession of preemptive attack capability to put neighboring countries in the striking range while seeking a chance for reinvasion will, on the contrary, expose its archipelago to the attack by righteous regional countries as a common target,” it said.
The deployment is expected to start next March, with the missiles potentially stationed at the Ground Self-Defense Force’s surface-to-ship missile regiment garrisons in Yufu in the Oita Province and Kumamoto City.
The initiative is reportedly intended to enhance security in Japan’s southwestern Nansei island chain, a region of strategic significance due to its proximity to Taiwan.