Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, has warned that Pyongyang would adopt “additional military options” after Japan test-fired a United States-made Tomahawk cruise missile.

Kim accused the Japanese military of moving away from a defensive posture and transforming into a military power capable of preemptive attacks, in a statement carried by state media KCNA on Wednesday.

Citing Japan’s recent Tomahawk test from the Aegis destroyer Chokai in the Pacific Ocean, as well as test-firings of other missiles and Japan’s participation in a US-led joint military drill in the Philippines in May, Kim said that North Korea would respond in ways that made Japan feel that its security has been exposed to greater danger.

“We should make it regret,” she said in some of her strongest rhetoric towards Tokyo in recent months.

Kim also accused the United States of enabling Japan’s military buildup by supplying Tomahawk missiles, modifying vessels for their operation and supporting the missile tests.

“The US is behind such dangerous military moves of Japan,” she added.

Threatening regional security

The statement is the latest in a series of North Korean commentary criticising security cooperation among the US, South Korea and Japan.

Since July, KCNA has published at least six editorials and commentaries denouncing these joint military activities as threatening regional security and raising tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

Analysts said Pyongyang is seeking to portray Tokyo’s military modernisation as a direct security threat to justify its own weapons development.

Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, said Kim’s comments attempt to frame Japan’s steps as part of a broader US effort to strengthen its proxy military capabilities to counter North Korea.

The messaging could lay the groundwork for possible future military demonstrations, including missile tests or displays of undersea strike capabilities, said Lim Eul-chul, a professor at Kyungnam University’s Institute for Far Eastern Studies. (Al Jazeera)

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