North Korea claims that Japan's push to increase defense spending is causing "excessive hardships for the people"

North Korea called Japan's push to increase defense spending an "anachronistic calculation" and argued that it would be a burden on Japan's economy and people.

Park Hak-seong, a researcher at the Japanese Research Institute of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said this in an article published on the 5th titled, "Japan's new militarist forces' attempt to increase 'defense spending' will only increase the regime crisis and security crisis," the Korean Central News Agency reported on the 6th.

Researcher Park said, "The new militarist forces' moves to increase military arms, which are constantly breaking precedents and setting new records, shed new light on the current situation of Japan, which has completely thrown off the shackles of being a war criminal country and entered the path of re-invasion."

He then pointed out, "It can be seen that the realistic guarantee for increasing military spending is securing a stable source of finance, but given the current state of the Japanese economy, which continues to see rising prices and a weak yen, there are concerns both internally and externally about whether it will be able to handle it."

He also argued, “What is clear is that the increase in military spending, far from improving Japan’s security environment, will not only darken the prospects for recovery of the Japanese economy but also impose heavy living hardship on the people.”

Park Hak-seong threatened, "If Japan loses its sense as it does now and clings desperately to military build-up, it is bound to bring about an inevitable and appropriate response from neighboring countries, and this will only result in increasing the risk of military conflict in the region."

At the same time, he demanded, “Japan should give up its anachronistic calculations, evaluate reality rationally, and not get caught up in gambles such as increasing military spending that will only increase the regime crisis and security crisis.”

The Japanese government plans to revise the 'Three Major Security Documents' within this year, and among these, the 'Defense Force Maintenance Plan' will determine the total defense expenditure for five years from 2027.

The Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Nikkei) reported that in the next maintenance plan, it is predicted that defense spending over the next five years will increase to 60 trillion to 80 trillion yen (about 506 trillion to 675 trillion won).