North Korea on Tuesday reprimanded Japan for intentionally encouraging a Korean Peninsula crisis, bluffing that Japan would suffer the biggest damages if any war breaks out on the peninsula.
"First of all, Japan, which is the US forces' logistics, launch and sorties bases, would be blanketed with radioactive clouds if a nuclear war occur on the Korean Peninsula," the Rodong Sinmun, an official daily of the North's ruling Workers' Party, said in a commentary titled "Japan's Reckless Act Which Drives Itself into Ruin."
The USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier and Japanese frigates conduct a joint drill on the Philippine Sea on April 26, 2017. (Yonhap)
It's a piece of cake for the North Korean army, which is putting even the United States into its scope, to strike Japan, the paper said.
"Not only those who try to harm us but their supporters will not be safe if any war breaks out," the paper said.
Asserting that the Korean Peninsula has stepped into the threshold of the occurrence of a nuclear war, the paper said that Japan is "winnowing" the tense situation.
As examples of such instigation, the paper cited Japan's maritime self-defense forces' joint drill with a US strike group led by the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier and the sudden reduction of the Japanese Prime Minister's schedule in Europe, citing a strained Korean Peninsula situation.
"It's obvious that Japan's fanning of a Korean Peninsula crisis is intended to proceed toward its militarization and reinvade the peninsula," the paper said.
Japan should behave prudently for its interest by endeavoring to solve the Korean Peninsula issue peacefully, it added. (Yonhap)