Japan's Rubbish About "Threat from Surrounding Countries"

The Japanese authorities blustered that they would seek heated-up discussion for the re-examination of "defense guidelines" from the beginning of 2018, under the pretext of "threat from surrounding countries".

Prime Minister Abe and Defense Minister Onodera called for "re-examining the guidelines so that they could provide defence capabilities in the true sense of words", stressing that Korea is pushing forward nuclear and missile development, China is beefing up military capabilities and Russia is busy in its activities in the northern areas.

Their intention is to re-examine and modify the defense guidelines to be the one of "defending Japanese nationals" from "threats" from the DPRK, China and Russia.

So inveterate is the crafty traits peculiar to the island nation.

It is Japan's bad habit to find fault with others and seek its own interests, as unanimously commented by the international community.

Japan is so shameless as to claim that its past blood-stained aggression, censured by humankind, was to "liberate Asia from Western European imperialists".

The ultimate purpose sought by Japan is to turn itself into a "normal state" capable of fighting a war from a "special country" which is disallowed to have the right to possess military force, to say nothing of the belligerent right, as a war defeated nation and a war criminal state.

It is trumpeting about "threat from surrounding countries" as a "legitimate pretext" for realizing this.

Toward the end of 2013, the Abe group worked out "defense guidelines" in which it expanded the essence of "security" into "international security" from national security, under the pretext of "aggravated security environment around Japan".

Here, Japan designated the DPRK as a "crucial instable factor" and specified that it would grant the "Self-Defense Forces" with the capabilities as marines as well as the capabilities for mobile deployment in order to promote "comprehensive improvement of counteraction" to "ballistic missiles" from the DPRK.

Accordingly, it removed political and legal huddles one after another that had stood in its way of militarization and reinvasion, and expanded the scope of overseas military operation of the SDF after massively increasing the military spending. It has also put in place the pretext and military conditions for intervening in case of emergency on the Korean peninsula.

Recently, it is calling for possessing 1 000-5 000 km medium-range missile which has central China and Russia within the firing range while getting keen on the access to "capabilities for attacking enemy positions" and the introduction of "Aegis Usher", interceptor missile system for ground deployment.

What matters here is the reason why Japan is modifying the "defense guidelines" earlier than schedule which it had originally planned to be 10-year-term defense guidelines.

The fact that the focus of the re-examination would include the tolerance of the exercise of the "right to collective self-defense" and the increased purchase of American arms and Japan-US cooperation clearly proves the intention sought by Japan.

This amounts to a declaration that Japan would step up the preparations for aggression by citing the DPRK and neighbouring countries as pretexts.

The rhetoric about "threat from surrounding areas" oft-repeated by Japan is little short of a prelude to an reinvasion aimed at painting its criminal nature of rushing headlong into turning the country into a military giant as "legitimate" and openly come out for overseas expansion.

The past history shows that loud rhetoric about "threat from surrounding areas" heard from the Japanese archipelago made the country rapidly lurch toward right and militarist and heated up the zeal for reinvasion.

The international community should approach with vigilance the moves of Japan whetting the sword of reinvasion by faulting others.

KCNA