PYONGYANG, May 30 (Itar-Tass) — Japan’s Self-Defense Force “has no right to participate in UN peacekeeping operations, taking into consideration the criminal military past of that country,” the Rodong Sinmun central newspaper said in an article on Wednesday.
This was the reaction to Tokyo’s intentions to join the U.N. contingent in South Sudan under the pretext of “ensuring peace and security”. According to the North Korean newspaper, Japan’s Self-Defense Force has turned into regular units capable to participate in offensive operations, which “has become an evident evidence of that country’s militarization”.
The Rodong Sinmun believes the Japanese authorities use all possibilities to expand the presence of Self-Defense Force units in foreign regions in order to “create conditions favorable for foreign aggression under the shelter of that leading international organization”.
The newspaper warns that if Japan tries to once again translate into practice its aggressive plans against Korea, Pyongyang “will take most resolute retaliatory measures and will make Tokyo pay for its crimes”.
The Korean peninsula was under the Japanese “protectorate”, which was in fact an occupation, from 1910 to 1945. Up till now, Tokyo has neither apologized nor paid compensations to victims of crimes committed at that period of time, as North Korea and South Korea insist.