SEOUL (Reuters) -- North Korea on Tuesday condemned a Japanese military buildup outlined in a new security strategy, calling it dangerous and vowing counteractions, while also warning of another imminent test of an intercontinental ballistic missile.
Japan last week announced its biggest military build-up since World War Two.
North Korea’s foreign ministry said Japan had effectively formalized “the capability for preemptive attack” with its new strategy that would bring a “radical” change to East Asia’s security environment.
The ministry also criticized the United States for “conniving and instigating Japan’s rearmament and reinvasion scheme” saying the United States had no right to question North Korea’s defenses.
“The foolish act of Japan seeking to gratify its black-hearted intention, arms buildup for reinvasion, under the pretext of the DPRK’s legitimate exercise of the right to self-defense can never be justified and tolerated,” the official said in a statement carried by the North’s KCNA news agency.
The spokesman referred to North Korea by the initials of its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
North Korea will express its displeasure with action to highlight Japan’s “wrong and very dangerous” decision, the spokesperson said, warning of a “shuddering shiver to be felt soon”.
In a separate statement, Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, hinted at a technological advance in its ICBM system, and denounced questions over what North Korea said was its bid to develop a spy satellite.
North Korea fired two medium-range ballistic missiles off its east coast on Sunday, calling it an “important” test for the development of a reconnaissance satellite that it hopes to complete by April.
Hours after the North’s statements, the U.S. Air Force flew B-52 strategic bombers and F-22 fighter jets to South Korea for joint drills with F-35 and F-15K fighters, in their latest display of force against North Korea.
The participation of the F-22 Raptor fifth generation stealth fighters, currently based in Japan’s Okinawa, was their first since May 2018 when the allies staged joint exercises in South Korea.
A spokesman of South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff declined to discuss any signs or possibility of another ICBM test, but said it was monitoring the North’s nuclear and missile activities.