N Korea warns Japan

2003-04-09 08:26

Tokyo - Japan should remember that it is "within striking distance" of North Korean weapons amid heightened calls in Tokyo to contain North Korea, the official Korean Central News Agency warned on Wednesday.

The Stalinist state's official mouthpiece accused Japan of being emboldened by the US-led invasion of Iraq in its ambition to remilitarise.

"Japan should behave with discretion, clearly mindful that it is also within the striking range of the DPRK (North Korea)," KCNA said in a dispatch monitored here.

"Japan is turning to the right and is getting militarized at such a rapid tempo that the call for destroying the DPRK, a legitimate sovereign state, is heard in the Diet (Japanese parliament). This is a clear indication of the gravity of the situation.

"The Japanese reactionaries seem to have lost their reason under the impact of the Iraqi war launched by their master," KCNA said in a reference to the United States which Japan has backed over going to war.

In 1998 Pyongyang test-fired a medium-range Taepodong ballistic missile that overflew Japan and splashed down in the Pacific.

North Korea is believed to have deployed some 100 Rodong-1 missiles with a range of 1 300km, capable of striking any target in Japan. - Sapa-AFP

- SAPA