Pyongyang denounces U.S. plan to raise troop numbers in Japan

North Korea on Friday criticized a move by the United States Forces Japan (USFJ) to increase troop numbers aimed at improving coordination with Japan's Self-Defense Forces.

Lt. Gen. Stephen F. Jost, commander of the USFJ, told the Asahi Shimbun in an interview published Tuesday that the USFJ had added 215 personnel since last year to “help strengthen its command structure” and “improve coordination” with Japanese forces in preparation for “a potential regional crisis.”

The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) denounced the move in an editorial, accusing the USFJ of transforming itself into “a war command center” with what it called a “sinister” plan to wage “an all-out war in the Asia Pacific region.”

The KCNA claimed that the USFJ commander had described armed conflicts not as a possibility, but as a certainty, and that North Korea would be the “the first target” of this war command.

In the interview piece, he stressed the need for “a constant state of preparedness,” saying the question was “not 'if' but 'when'” a crisis would emerge in what he called “a very dynamic” part of the world.

The KCNA also criticized combined joint sustainment training conducted by Seoul and Washington earlier this month.

In addition, it cited trilateral security cooperation between South Korea, the U.S. and Japan, including the annual Freedom Edge exercise, as justification for its continued pursuit of nuclear weapons.

Yonhap