SEOUL: North Korea accused Japan of a “grave provocation” on Wednesday (Apr 15) after Tokyo laid out its opposition to Pyongyang’s nuclear programme in an annual diplomatic paper.
The countries do not have formal diplomatic relations, and Pyongyang frequently criticises Tokyo over its colonial rule of the Korean peninsula, which ended with World War II.
The Japanese foreign ministry released its annual bluebook last week, detailing Tokyo’s official diplomatic views and repeating its opposition to North Korea having nuclear weapons.
The position is “a grave provocation encroaching upon the sovereign rights, security interests and development rights of our sacred state”, an unnamed North Korean foreign ministry official said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.
North Korea’s “measures for bolstering up its defence capabilities … belong to the right to self-defence”, the statement said.
It described the bluebook as “woven with conventional gangster-like logic and absurdity”.
North Korea has insisted that it will not give up its nuclear arsenal, describing its path as “irreversible” and vowing to strengthen its capabilities.
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/east-asia/north-korea-japan-diplomatic-paper-nuclear-programme-6057036
