Kim Yo Jong warns Japan over Tomahawk test, says N.K. military to set up additional options

August 5, 2024 — Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, warned on Monday that Pyongyang would establish additional military options targeting Japan. The statement came in response to the Japanese navy's first live-fire test of a Tomahawk cruise missile, conducted on July 29 from the Aegis destroyer Chokai in the Pacific Ocean.

North Korea's Condemnation

In a statement published by the state-controlled Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Kim Yo Jong said:

"Japan, a war criminal state, is accelerating its transformation into a war state, taking advantage of the acute and variable trend of the present international situation in which global geopolitical conflicts and inter-camp confrontation are getting fiercer."

She cited two specific developments as evidence of Japan's aggressive posture:

• The test-firing of the U.S.-supplied Tomahawk missile
• Tokyo's participation in a U.S.-led joint military drill in the Philippines in May

According to Kim, these moves prove that Japan's push for preemptive strike capability has entered "the stage of the actual act."

Japan's Military Buildup

Japan's pursuit of long-range strike weapons dates to December 2022, when Tokyo revised three key security documents to adopt what it calls "counterstrike capability." This marked a significant shift away from its decades-old policy of maintaining a strictly defensive military.

The revision — described at the time as Japan's biggest military buildup since World War II — opened the way for Japan's purchase of 400 Tomahawk missiles from the United States. Deliveries began this year.

Legal and Constitutional Concerns

Kim argued that Japan's moves to develop preemptive attack capabilities were:

"contrary to international law and its constitution, which disallowed the possession of war potentials, the right to participate in a war and the right to belligerency."

She added:

"The mass possession of different kinds of long-range strike means with an unexpectedness of preemptive attack and a drastic increase in the radius of their operation and their deployment of multi-demesne forward spaces for actual war, including sea, underwater and air, make Japan reorganize its overall armed forces as a formation of preemptive attack and overseas aggression."

Japan's Justification

Japan has stated that its military buildup is necessitated by what Tokyo calls the "most severe and complex security environment since the end of World War II." In its latest defense white paper, Japan's Defense Ministry warned that:

"North Korea's military activities pose an even more grave and imminent threat to Japan's national security than ever before."

North Korea's Response

Kim accused Tokyo of long posturing as a "peace-loving state" while branding neighboring countries' own defense measures as "threat" and "provocation." She called this posture "a camouflaged tactic to cover up its ambition for a military giant."

While accusing Tokyo of building up its military capabilities to threaten North Korea, Kim also blamed Washington for enabling the test:

"It is not a secret that the U.S. has handed over Tomahawk long-range cruise missiles to Japan, remodeled a warship to be used in its operation, and provided all conditions and environment for its test-fire including the place of launch."

She concluded:

"We will never remain a passive onlooker to the military evolution of Japan which may pose a grave threat to the security of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea."

Additional Military Options

Kim stated:

"I make it clear upon authorization that the armed forces of the DPRK and the military leadership will set up additional military options which are obviously due to Japan's transformation of these days."

She did not disclose further details about the planned options.

Update: Missile Launch

On August 6, North Korea fired a short-range ballistic missile (SRBM) from the Wonsan area toward the East Sea. The launch came just one day after Kim's warning to Japan and shortly before the annual Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise — one of the main joint South Korea-U.S. military exercises — which is expected to be held this month.