North Korea accuses Japan of reinvasion plotting over record-high defense budget

Published: 06 Jan. 2026, 12:14

Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi delivers a New Year press conference in Ise, central Japan, on Jan. 5. Takaichi delivered a press conference after visiting the Ise Jingu shrine. [EPA/YONHAP]

 
North Korea on Tuesday bristled at Japan’s allocation of its biggest-ever annual defense budget this year, accusing Tokyo of plotting to revive its militaristic past.
 
The Rodong Sinmun, the North’s most widely circulated newspaper, issued the criticism while referring to Japan’s allocation of 9.04 trillion yen ($57.7 billion) for this year’s defense spending, a record figure primarily aimed at strengthening the country’s strike-back capabilities and coastal defense.
 
 
The newspaper said the administration of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is seeking to revise Japan’s pacifist constitution and turn its Self-Defense Forces into regular troops, denouncing Tokyo for plotting to lay the institutional foundation for an “aggressive country.”
 
“Enslaved by its self-destructive delusion, [Japan] is going mad with reinvasion plotting,” the newspaper claimed.
 
The newspaper also criticized the Japanese Self-Defense Forces’ joint military drills with member states of NATO and the expansion of their operational scope, accusing the government of seeking to revive its past ambition to lead East Asia.
 
“Setting a military budget aimed at advancing the Self-Defense Forces’ war-fighting capabilities to a higher level demonstrates the current government’s ambition to become a military power at a reckless stage,” the newspaper said, calling the move a clear sign of Japan’s plotting to revive its past militarism.

Yonhap