North Korea denounces Japan's $56B defense budget, threatens 'counterattack'

North Korea on Saturday denounced Japan’s plan to set a record-high defense budget for next year, warning that it would not “overlook it” and threatening to “counterattack thoroughly.”

“Setting a record for the war budget will only increase Japan’s ‘security deficit’,” the Korean Central News Agency quoted a commentary carried by the Rodong Sinmun, the most widely read newspaper in the country, as saying.

Japan’s defense ministry has set aside 8.9 trillion yen ($56 billion) for defense spending in its budget request for the next fiscal year. There are also requests for some 150 projects whose funding hasn’t yet been determined, possibly raising the final defense budget to come to around 10 trillion yen.

The Rodong Sinmun described the record high budget as a “dangerous expansion of the war budget,” adding that “there’s no doubt that such a massive increase in military spending will lead to a buildup of armed forces aimed at completing preparations for a war of aggression.”

It also criticized Japan for introducing the U.S.-made Tomhawk missile despite its record high national debt, which reached 1.34 quadrillion yen as of the end of last year.
“It’s self-evident that the purpose of squandering taxpayers’ money is by no means to build a ‘peaceful state.’”

BY JIN MIN-JI [[email protected]]