North Korea on Tuesday, 11 August sharply condemned Japan's latest defence white paper, calling it a manufactured justification for Tokyo's accelerating military expansion and branding it a legal framework for what Pyongyang described as 'the operation of war machine.'

Pyongyang's Core Accusation

Kang Won-chol, identified as an international security analyst, laid out Pyongyang's position in an article published simultaneously by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) and Rodong Sinmun, North Korea's most widely circulated state newspaper. Kang argued that Japan had 'groundlessly' labelled North Korea a 'serious and imminent threat' in the white paper to rationalise what he called a 'reckless' military buildup.

'It is nothing but an act of turning black into white that Japan stipulated the ‘threat’ from neighbouring countries in the white paper although it has been putting spurs to the tightening of the alliance with the U.S. and its followers after setting it as a ‘state policy’ to negate its past crimes and realise its ambition to become a military power,' Kang wrote.

Koizumi Singled Out

Kang specifically cited Japanese Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi's public call to strengthen Japan's military capabilities following the white paper's release as direct evidence of Tokyo's militarisation drive. 'This clearly shows how desperately he is pushing Japan into following an extremely dangerous road in the vanguard for militarisation,' Kang argued. He further warned that no framing of Japan's actions as 'defence' would, in his words, 'conceal its true colours as a root cause of endangering the peace and escalating the tensions in the region.'

North Korea's Counter-Justification

Kang also used the article to defend North Korea's own military expansion, contending that bolstering its capabilities was a necessary deterrent against what Pyongyang characterised as the hostile intentions of other nations. This mirrors a pattern Pyongyang has consistently employed — framing its weapons programme as a reactive, defensive measure rather than an offensive posture.

What Japan's White Paper Actually Said

Japan published its first defence white paper under the Sanae Takaichi government last Tuesday. The document called for military modernisation centred on integrating advanced technologies — including drones and artificial intelligence — and deepening cooperation with allied nations to address what Tokyo described as growing regional security challenges.

Seoul's Measured Response

An official at South Korea's unification ministry played down Pyongyang's reaction, describing it as an 'annual' occurrence. 'North Korea's criticism of Japan's defence white paper is not unusual in itself,' the official said, while noting a recent uptick in the volume and intensity of such criticism, including Pyongyang's escalating condemnation of trilateral security cooperation among South Korea, the United States, and Japan. The official added that Seoul viewed the outburst as 'Pyongyang's attempt to justify its nuclear weapons program and align itself with China and Russia,' and said the ministry would continue to monitor developments closely.

The exchange underscores deepening fault lines in Northeast Asian security, with Japan's defence posture, North Korea's weapons programme, and the evolving US-Japan-South Korea trilateral framework increasingly driving regional tensions.