North Korea: Japan's nuclear ambitions must be stopped

PYONGYANG

North Korea said on Sunday that Japan's nuclear ambitions "must be prevented at any cost" after a Tokyo official reportedly suggested the country should possess atomic weapons.

Pyongyang's reaction came after the unnamed official in the prime minister's office was quoted by Kyodo News on Dec. 19 as saying: "I think we should possess nuclear weapons."

The official was reported to have been involved in devising Japan's security policy.

The Kyodo report also quoted the source as saying: "In the end, we can only rely on ourselves" when explaining the necessity.

Pyongyang said the remarks showed Tokyo was "openly revealing their ambition to possess nuclear weapons, going beyond the red line."

"Japan's attempt to go nuclear must be prevented at any cost as it will bring mankind a great disaster," the director of the Institute for Japan Studies under the North's foreign ministry said in a statement carried by official Korean Central News Agency yesterday.

"This is not a misstatement or a reckless assertion but clearly reflects Japan's long-cherished ambition for nuclear weaponization," said the North Korean official, who was not named.

The official added that if Japan acquired nuclear weapons, "Asian countries will suffer a horrible nuclear disaster and mankind will face a great disaster."