(LEAD) N. Korea slams Japan's defense paper as justification for military buildup

SEOUL, Aug. 11 (Yonhap) -- North Korea harshly criticized Japan's latest defense white paper on Tuesday, accusing it of justifying the country's military expansion and serving as a legal basis for the operation of a war machine. Analyst Kang Won-chol made these claims in an article published by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) and Rodong Sinmun, the most widely read newspaper in North Korea.

Kang asserted that Japan's publication of the white paper came at a time when the nation was engaged in an intense militarization push, driven by ambitions for reinvasion. He argued that Japan had unreasonably described North Korea as a "serious and imminent threat" in the white paper to justify its reckless military buildup. Kang cited Japan's Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi's call for stronger military capabilities following the white paper's release as evidence of Tokyo's push toward militarization.

Kang emphasized that Japan was desperately pursuing an extremely dangerous path of militarization, despite attempting to disguise its true intentions as defense. He warned that Japan's efforts to label its aggressive actions as defense would never hide its real role as the primary cause of regional peace deterioration and tension escalation.

Kang also defended North Korea's own military buildup, arguing that strengthening its military capabilities was essential to deter what North Korea described as hostile intentions from other countries. A South Korean unification ministry official dismissed North Korea's annual denunciation of Japan's defense white paper as unremarkable, noting that such criticism has been increasingly frequent lately.

The official suggested that Pyongyang's criticism aimed to justify its nuclear weapons program and align itself with China and Russia, adding that South Korea would closely monitor the situation.