[2018-02-16]
Jang Chol, fellow at the Division of Asian Studies of the Institute of International Studies, on February 13 published an article which laid bare the sinister intention of the Japanese authorities’ insistence on the DPRK’s “threat”.
The following are the excerpts:

Japan’s insistence on the “DPRK threat” is, first of all, aimed at laying political foundations for making it a country with the right of belligerency with the “DPRK threat” as an excuse.
It is well known that the Abe clique regards it as an indispensable pretext for remaining in office for a longer period, but hidden behind it is an ingrained political motivation.
Historically, Japan has used “foreign pressure” to realize its wild ambition of becoming a power.
Buoyed up by the ambition to realize the “theory of the conquest of Korea” since the “Meiji Restoration” in 1868, Japan annexed Korea on the pretext of the threat from the Qing Dynasty of China and Czarist Russia and ran amuck to conquer the Asian continent by taking advantage of the Second World War.
After its defeat in the war it effectively used the Korean and Vietnam wars as an important occasion for “high growth” and military resurgence, and after the demise of the cold war it paved the way for overseas troop dispatch on the pretext of the US-led “anti-terror war”.
The current Japanese authorities are now playing up the “DPRK threat” theory to put down political forces that stand in the way of building a warring state.
In the 1990s a “political reform” was carried out in Japan to crush reformist forces piecemeal and turn all political parties and political forces into conservative ones. Today they claim that “Abe’s one-man system” has been set up, but the “pacifist constitution” championing forces and remnants of opposition parties still stand in their way.
In the middle of the past century there was a time when the Japanese fascist military forces confined all five political parties including the Party of Political Friends and Social Popular Party to a government-made organization, called the Imperial Rule Assistance Association, on the pretext of “threat to the state system” and made them voice their support for war moves.
The Japanese authorities now needs the same “foreign pressure” as that in the past and it is the DPRK’s “nuclear and missile threat”.
The second reason why Japan insists on the “DPRK threat” is that it tries to rebuild the socio-economic foundations of a “country with the right of belligerency” with the latter’s “threat” as a golden opportunity.
Over seven decades have passed since Japan was defeated in the Second World War. Frustration and war-weariness have now taken root and post-war generations play the leading part in Japanese society.
Also in view of its economic structure, munitions industry has shrunk as against civilian industry and is lopsided in many parts as it is weighed down by the American war industry.
It is the urgent crisis consciousness of the Japanese authorities that if they fail to drastically transform such socio-economic structure, Japan will be reduced to a country which cannot fight a war for ever, and the most apt excuse they found is the DPRK’s “nuclear and missile threat”.
Japan’s rightist rulers already threw wet blanket over the moves towards normalizing DPRK-Japan relations in the early 1990s, reduced the historic 2002 DPRK-Japan Pyongyang Declaration to a paper promise and viciously incited “dry up north Korea!” confrontation consciousness to make anti-DPRK hostility infest Japanese society.
They fanned the flames of this animosity by staging the largest ever evacuation drill in the middle of Tokyo on the opening day of a regular parliamentary session on January 22. They mounted nearly 70 nationwide evacuation and information transmission drills allegedly to counter the “DPRK threat” from April last year and frequently orchestrated “error reports” on missile fire to “demonize” the DPRK.
Japan increases military expenditure to a record high for six consecutive years on the pretext of countering the “DPRK threat” and beefs up the main munitions companies to be world-class arms producers to rebuild and perfect the economic foundations qualitatively and quantitatively for carrying out a war.
Thirdly, Japan’s insistence on the “DPRK threat” is designed to distract the sharp eyes of the international community on its attempt to be a military power with the “DPRK threat” as a shield.
The Abe regime has made big strides in a bid for a military power in a little over five years in office: It fixed the security strategy and set up the national security council in 2013, instituted the three principles of war equipment transfer in 2014, adopted a comprehensive security-related law in 2015 and revised the Japan-US agreement on mutual provision of goods and manpower in 2016. Accordingly, the Ground, Maritime and Air Self-Defence Forces are allowed to expand the scope of their activities to cyber and outer space, completely free from the yoke of “exclusive defence.”
In order to play down and conceal this, Japan tries to use the DPRK’s “nuclear and missile threat” as a shield.
Under the veil of “global diplomacy” the Japanese authorities trot across the world in an attempt to create an international atmosphere of sympathy with it, arguing that Japan faces a serious threat and it needs close cooperation to put pressure on the DPRK. Even if a partner nods a little as a sign of uncertainty, Japan says it has reached a consensus of views with it and dangles its purse to force a promise.
It is self-evident that F-35 stealth fighters capable of long-distance operation, KC-46A tanker plane with the flying range of over 12 000 km, E-2D early warning plane, Global Hawk high-tech drone and other latest attack military hardware introduced by Japan are not for defence.
Russia, China and other neighbouring countries sensitively respond to Japan’s attempt to deploy ground-based missile defence system Aegis Ashore and long-range cruise missile, not because they want to take side of anyone but because they will target them.
In a word, the Japanese authorities magnify the “DPRK threat” even by staking their fate on the risky gamble because the escalated tension on the Korean peninsula gives a golden opportunity and benefit to them who have long desired to become a military power. This is the essence underlying their ill intention.