North Korea condemns Japan’s reported push for nuclear weapons, calling it a ‘great disaster’ that must be prevented at any cost.
SEOUL: North Korea said on Sunday that Japan’s nuclear ambitions “must be prevented at any cost”.
Pyongyang’s reaction followed a Kyodo News report quoting an unnamed Japanese official involved in security policy.
The official reportedly said, “I think we should possess nuclear weapons,” adding, “In the end, we can only rely on ourselves.”
A director at North Korea’s Institute for Japan Studies said the remarks showed Tokyo was “openly revealing their ambition to possess nuclear weapons, going beyond the red line”.
“This is not a misstatement or a reckless assertion, but clearly reflects Japan’s long-cherished ambition for nuclear weaponisation,” the unnamed official said in a statement carried by state media.
The official warned that if Japan acquired nuclear weapons, “Asian countries will suffer a horrible nuclear disaster and mankind will face a great disaster”.
The statement did not address Pyongyang’s own nuclear programme, which began with a test in 2006 in violation of UN resolutions.
North Korea is believed to possess dozens of nuclear warheads and has vowed to keep them despite international sanctions.
Pyongyang says the weapons are necessary to deter perceived military threats from the United States and its allies.
In a September address to the United Nations, North Korea’s vice foreign minister Kim Son Gyong said his country would never surrender its nuclear weapons.
Leader Kim Jong Un has also said he is open to talks with Washington, provided Pyongyang is allowed to keep its nuclear arsenal.
