PYONGYANG, August 5. /TASS/. North Korea will take additional military steps in response to Japan’s shift in security policy, Kim Yo Jong, a department director at the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, said in a statement published by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

"North Korea’s armed forces and military leadership will clearly choose additional military options with regard to recent changes in Japan," the statement said.

Kim Yo Jong accused Tokyo of speeding up the country’s transformation into "a military state," pointing to the recent test launch of a Tomahawk cruise missile from a Japanese destroyer, Japan’s joint drills with the United States, the deployment of long-range weapons and the development of offensive weapons. She noted that those actions demonstrated a shift toward the practical implementation of a policy aimed at acquiring the capability to carry out preemptive strikes.

The statement added that the US was assisting Japan in strengthening its military capabilities in an effort to use Tokyo, along with Seoul, to implement its strategy of dominance in the Asia-Pacific region. Kim Yo Jong stressed that Tokyo’s military expansion represented a threat to regional and global security.

She called on the international community to prevent Japan from becoming a military power, saying that Pyongyang would not tolerate changes in Tokyo’s military policy.