Pyongyang, December 21 (KCNA) -- On December 20, the director of the Institute for Japan Studies under the DPRK Foreign Ministry released the following press statement "The war criminal state Japan's attempt to go nuclear must be prevented at any cost as it will bring mankind a great disaster":

Recently, the new Cabinet of Japan has made extremely dangerous military moves that put the preceding governments into the shade, heightening the vigilance at home and abroad.

The Japanese ruling quarters are openly revealing their ambition to possess nuclear weapons, going beyond the red line for a war criminal state, while drastically revising their military security policies as evidenced by the strengthening of the preemptive-attack capability aimed at turning itself into a war state, the easing of arms export restrictions and the reexamination of the " three principles of denuclearization".

Shortly ago, a high-ranking official of the Japanese government unhesitatingly made very provocative remarks that Japan should possess nuclear weapons, talking about the security environment around Japan getting more serious and necessity for bolstering up its own deterrent.

This is not a misstatement or a reckless assertion, but clearly reflects Japan's long-cherished ambition for nuclear armament. It constitutes an open challenge to Japan's Constitution as well as all the international laws stipulating the duties of a defeated nation.

Such reckless remarks made by a high-ranking official in charge of recommending security policies to the government prove that the Japanese political circle is trying hard to possess nuclear weapons, and clearly show Japan's bellicose and aggressive nature.

It is a common perception of the international community that Japan, which started the research on and development of nuclear weapons in strict secrecy during the Second World War, has secretly laid the foundations for possessing the ability to manufacture nuclear weapons at any time after its defeat, and that what left is only its political decision.

As already known, availing itself of the situation of Ukraine, Japan has persistently sought the possibility and way of possessing nuclear weapons by raising the theory of sharing nuclear weapons calling for deploying U.S. nuclear weapons in it to jointly employ them and trying to join AUKUS, a nuclear alliance of Anglo-Saxon countries.

When it was reported that the U.S. allowed the ROK to possess a nuclear submarine, the chief Cabinet secretary, the minister of Defence and other high-ranking government officials of Japan immediately began to openly talk about the need to possess a nuclear-powered submarine which has been prohibited.

All facts go to prove that the Japanese authorities are scheming to pave the way for nuclear armament while examining the reaction of public opinion at home and abroad to their ambition for nuclear possession and misleading the public to get used to it gradually.

Japan is just a rogue state capable of arming itself with nuclear weapons and igniting another war of aggression once occasion comes, and Japan's true purpose of crying out about the threats from neighboring countries is to justify its moves to become a military giant with nuclear armament as its ultimate goal.

The shameless double-faced act of Japan, who openly talks about the world without nuclear weapons under the signboard of the world's only atomic-bombed country and works hard to go nuclear behind the scenes, is the greatest threat to be rejected by the international community with vigilance and a reckless act of evoking serious concern among regional countries.

The history of aggression of Japan clearly proves that in case Japan, a war criminal state, possesses even nuclear weapons, Asian countries will suffer a horrible nuclear disaster and mankind will face a great disaster.

The progressive mankind loving justice and peace should resolutely check the dangerous military acts of Japan, a war criminal state which is rushing toward nuclear armament with the backing of the U.S., denying its crime-woven history. -0-