Pyongyang Blasts Tokyo's Defense Buildup as a Blow to Japan's Own Economy

North Korea came out swinging against Japan's reported defense spending plans, warning that Tokyo's military buildup will wound its own economy and land hard on Japanese taxpayers. The rebuke ran through the Korean Central News Agency, which Yonhap reported on, citing state media.

In KCNA's words, the spending increase will not only darken the prospects for Japan's economic recovery but also impose heavy hardships on the people. Pyongyang framed the plan as an outdated gamble by what it called a war criminal state, arguing the money makes regional security worse rather than better.

At the center of the fight: reports that Tokyo is weighing up to 80 trillion yen in defense funding. That figure is what triggered the North Korean broadside, according to the state media statement carried by Yonhap.

The blast lands on well-worn ground. Pyongyang has spent recent months trading warnings with Washington, Tokyo and Seoul over joint military exercises it calls provocative, with its defense minister Kim promising countermeasures. North Korea also fired what appeared to be ballistic missiles toward the East Sea in September, launches Japan's Defense Ministry tracked and said landed outside its exclusive economic zone.

Pyongyang's latest salvo also fits its habit of tying Indo-Pacific security to Europe, a line Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi echoed when she argued the security environments in the Euro-Atlantic and Indo-Pacific are indivisible. For now, the dispute is words, not weapons, with Japan's spending blueprint still taking shape and North Korea watching every yen of it.