Kim Jong Un's Younger Brother Criticizes Japan's Tomahawk Cruise Missile Test

JAKARTA - North Korea condemned Japan's recent test of a Tomahawk cruise missile, according to a state media report.

Kim Yo Jong, the influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, urged the international community to raise vigilance against what she called Japan's "wartime expansionism", the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.

"It is now becoming clear that the move is only a veiled tactic to cover up their ambition to become a major military power," said Kim, who is also a senior official of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea, reported by ANTARA from Anadolu, Wednesday, August 5.

The statement came days after the Japanese Self-Defense Forces conducted the first test of a US-made Tomahawk cruise missile launched from a destroyer.

"The international community must increase vigilance against the reckless military ambitions of the successor of the war criminal state who wants to realize the old dream of Japanese wartime expansionism," Kim said.

Japan's national security strategy adopted in 2022 paves the way for the country to have the ability to attack enemy missile bases as a self-defense measure, while staying within the constitutional limits that reject war, according to the Kyodo news agency.