editorial

Kang Won Chol, an international security affairs analyst of the DPRK, released the following article "Neo-militarists' moves to turn the Japanese archipelago into an 'invincible aircraft carrier' will bring terrible disaster to Japan":

The neo-militarists of Japan, who have emerged as a warlike force after putting off the veil of the "pacifist state", are bringing a whirlwind of building a war-capable state and reviving an aggressor nation to the archipelago. This pushes the peace and security environment in the Northeast Asian region to a seriously critical phase.

As made public, a joint military drill Orient Shield will reportedly be staged by the Japanese "Self-Defense Forces" in the largest-ever scale with the US and Australian forces in and around Hokkaido of Japan from September 8 to 24, timed to coincide with the US-Japan-ROK multi-domain tripartite joint military exercises Freedom Edge which are staged from September 7 to 11 in the Korean peninsula region.

Orient Shield is the military drill the ground SDF and the US army have staged since 1982 almost every year. The Australian army joined it last year.

Asserting that the drill codenamed "Orient Shield" is aimed at "strengthening solidarity for coping with various threats in East Asia", Japan has openly pursued military confrontation with other regional countries.

About 3 700 troops from Japan, the US and Australia will reportedly take part in the exercises to be staged around Hokkaido. The exercises involve live-ammunition firing, airborne dropping and especially the use of the US intermediate missile system Typhon deployed in Japan for Valiant Shield, large-scale mobile exercises of the US Pacific forces held in June, for the first time.

The Typhon system, composed of Mk41 vertical launching platforms, is capable of launching the Tomahawk long-range cruise missile and SM-6 ship-to-air missile which respectively have a range of 1 600 km and 300 km, which means that it can be used to strike naval and ground targets.

Japan, which has focused on deploying long-range strike means in recent years by lavishing a huge amount of money as military expenditure, resorts to bilateral and multilateral joint military exercises with the US and its vassal forces more eagerly than ever. This is a manifestation of their sinister scheme to round off its real war capabilities against the DPRK and other neighbouring countries.

Japan, a defeated nation banned from possessing war capabilities, the right to participate in war and the right to belligerence, conducted the first test launch of Tomahawk long-range cruise missiles from a warship in the Pacific Ocean at the end of July in violation of its constitution. It is seeking to introduce even the US forces' Typhon system into the war rehearsal. This is just targeting the regional sovereign countries and it is bad enough to amplify due concern and vigilance.

Moreover, the present Japanese authorities seek to stage a series of war games at the doorstep of neighbouring countries with the backing of their American master seriously destroying and violating the existing international order through illegal and arbitrary practices and tyranny. Therefore, their dangerous military manoeuvres indicate the present address of Japan evolving in an offensive manner with the passage of time.

The neo-militarist warmongers of Japan, who have added an item of "new combat mode" to the 2026 Defense White Paper, are persistently pushing ahead with such militarist policies as the determination of the highest-ever military expenditure, development of underwater-launched hypersonic missile and unmanned submarine capable of long-distance navigation, introduction of AI into the SDF commanding system and an attempt to reorganize the mechanism of the Ministry of Defense. Due to their moves, the frenzy for reinvasion in the archipelago has reached the extremes.

In the past 80-odd years since its defeat, Japan placed its whole territory of archipelago ranging from Hokkaido to Kyushu in the US hands as a nuclear forward base and a logistic base for aggression against the DPRK, clamouring about an "unsinkable aircraft carrier". Now, it has thrown away even the yoke of the defeated nation and is rushing headlong toward neo-militarism. The international community should never remain a passive onlooker to this grave situation.

All the facts prove once again that the only prescription for controlling the descendants of militarism who inherited the genes of aggression is to have an overwhelming and unparalleled war deterrent.

The more persistently Japan tries to greatly expand the scope of preemptive attack and secure actual war capability while giving off powder fumes in front of the nuclear weapons states, the more clearly the mainland of Japan will be in the sights of the neighbouring countries.

The attempt of the neo-militarists of Japan to turn the whole archipelago into an "unsinkable aircraft carrier" will inevitably invite great misfortune.