N. Korea slams Suga for hostile policy, warns next leader against following in his footsteps

North Korean flag (Reuters-Yonhap)

North Korea on Friday accused Japan's outgoing Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga of pursuing a "hostile policy" toward the North, warning the country's next leader against following in his footsteps.

In a post written by an individual researcher on Japan on its website, the North's foreign ministry said that Suga, along with his predecessor Shinzo Abe, should be entirely blamed for causing the relations between Pyongyang and Tokyo to fall to the "worst status ever."

"Suga and Abe deserve curse and accusation from our people forever for being endlessly bent on seeking the meanest and most barbarous containment machinations against North Korea," the ministry said. "Suga and Abe are among those who caused the ties between North Korea and Japan to fall to the worse status ever."

Suga earlier offered to resign as Japan's prime minister, and the process of electing the new chairman of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), who will serve as the next premier, is expected to take place later this month.

The ministry warned Japan's next leader not to repeat Suga's mistake of seeking a hostile policy toward the North.

"Politicians running for next LDP chairman have obviously demonstrated their intentions to follow in the footsteps of their predecessors' hostile policy toward the North," the ministry said.

"Should they continue to cling to such hostile policy, the only thing that they could get would be an abjectly crushing defeat." (Yonhap)