North Korean leader criticizes Japan as turning into ‘war state’

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un criticized Japan as turning into a “war state,” in a speech during a three-day meeting held through Monday, official news media said Tuesday.

“Japan, a defeated country in Asia, has openly turned itself into a war state by taking the present disturbing circumstances as an opportunity to get rid of all shackles restricting its moves to become a military power,” he said, according to the Korean Central News Agency.

In the concluding speech during a meeting of the ruling party, Kim also pushed for a faster buildup of national defense capabilities. He vowed that with nuclear technology as a basis, “more extensive, innovative and encouraging plans would be carried out with increasing speed,” the report said.

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Kim then set forth “tasks to dynamically carry out the work to increase powerful defense assets without pause in our own way and with a goal of overtaking the world,” KCNA said.

The speech was given during a plenary meeting of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea. /dl