International Affairs Analyst of DPRK on Japan's Policy of "Using Atomic Power"

Pyongyang, August 12 (KCNA) -- Ri Myong Nam, an international affairs analyst of the DPRK, Wednesday issued the following article "What does the policy of 'using an atomic power', timed to coincide with the Japanese high-ranking politicians' assertion of access to nuke, suggest?":

At a recent cabinet ministerial conference on the atomic power policy, Japan reportedly decided an action guideline calling for "making the utmost use of atomic power for energy security and decarbonization".

The essence of the guideline is to build 2~5 new nuclear reactors of the next generation by the 2040s and 11~14 reactors by the 2050s as regards the fact that the reactors of most domestic atomic power plants are superannuated, and to focus on investment, research and development and training of talents to this end.

At a glance, it is illuminated as a medium- and long-term plan for satisfying the daily-increasing domestic energy demand, but in view of the relations with the policy of atomic power pursued by Japan, the guideline contains a sinister and cunning strategic attempt that can never be overlooked.

It is an open secret that Japan planned to develop and use atomic bombs targeting the enemy states during World War II and has persistently pursued the possession of nuclear weapons so far.

Japan's atomic power policy is an extremely double-dealing and deceptive one as it has persistently pursued the nuclear armament under the specious name of "peaceful use of atomic power".

It is proved by the successive Japanese rulers from the Kishi Cabinet in the 1950s to the Abe Cabinet in the 2010s through Sato, Fukuta, Nakasone and Hata cabinets, who said that "Japan would have nuclear weapons if the requirement for defense was imminent", "Japan can have nuclear weapons for exclusive defense under the constitution," and "Japan is certainly capable of possessing nuclear weapons".

In fact, the Japanese government and the "Self-Defense Forces" have never stopped the internal examination on nuclear armament for the past decades, and it goes without saying that Japan's ambition for nuclear armament is based on the vast amount of nuclear material and nuclear technology seized through the operation of nuclear power plants at home.

Under the active patronage and connivance of the U.S., Japan is enjoying the privilege of extracting, stockpiling and reusing plutonium by reprocessing spent nuclear fuel among non-nuclear states. And it has now stockpiled 44.4 tons of plutonium and is planning to complete the spent nuclear fuel reprocessing plant within this year.

Nuclear power plants in Japan have reportedly piled up large quantities of spent nuclear fuel rods which can be used in extracting plutonium at any time and their quantities have already approached the limit of storage capacity.

It is the opinion of experts that Japan, which has secured huge quantities of nuclear material and possessed sensitive nuclear technology for military purposes, has turned into a de facto "quasi-nuclear weapons state" capable of making nuclear weapons within several months once it is determined to do.

What should not be overlooked is the fact that the Japanese government's decision on the nuclear power-related guidelines is timed to coincide with the recent call for nuclear possession by ultra-right politicians.

The present Takaichi Cabinet, which emerged in October last year, is pushing ahead with neo-militarist internal and external policies such as the revision of the "Three Non-Nuclear Principles" and the possession of nuclear submarines, while the theory of nuclear armament is openly being discussed among high-ranking politicians including the minister of Defense and an assistant to the prime minister.

Japan is hell-bent on the deployment of various kinds of ultra-modern military hardware including Tomahawk cruise missile for actual war and the expansion of firing range with the back of its American master keen on maintaining military hegemony in the Asia-Pacific region. It is as clear as noonday that what the purpose of Japan is through a decision on guidelines related to medium and long-term atomic power.

It is the real intention of the Japanese ruling quarters in advertising "the maximum use of atomic power" to maximize the striking power of military hardware deployed for action in parallel with the building of military infrastructure possessed of preemptive attack means far beyond the territory of the archipelago.

Even now when 80-odd years have passed after the war, neo-militarist Japan is sharpening the sword of revenge while persistently denying its past history of aggression and advocating the "story of threats from neighboring countries". If Japan has nuclear weapons, a catastrophe unprecedented in history will surely come true.

Japan's nuclear armament, another malicious variable, seriously threatens the strategic security balance of the region along with the U.S.-Japan-ROK cooperation system which is evolving into a military bloc containing nuclear elements. The prevailing situation demands that the independent states in the region bolster up the war deterrent capable of overwhelmingly suppressing the dangerous military acts of the enemy countries.

If Japan, a war criminal state frantically dashing toward the threshold, hallucinated by militarism, persists in its nuclear weapons ambition, it will surely reach the tragic end of ruin of the whole of the archipelago.

The international community aspiring after justice and peace should never tolerate Japan's reckless and dangerous scheme for nuclear armament. -0-