S. Korea lambastes Japan for discussing pre-emptive strike against N. Korea

South Korea sharply criticized Japan on Tuesday for its discussion of a pre-emptive strike against North Korea, calling the move the "exposure of the nature of its aggression." On Monday, Japan's top officials and politicians floated the idea of staging a pre-emptive attack on missiles bases in North Korea amid the global furor over the communist state's series of missile tests last week.

"We can't help but intensely watch it, as Japan exposed the nature of its aggression," said Jung Tae-ho, a spokesman at South Korea's presidential office, Cheong Wa Dae. "In view of the historical fact Japan made a pretext of protecting its nationals residing on the Korean Peninsula before invading Korea in the past, the Japanese moves are surely serious threatening remarks to obstruct the peace on the Korean Peninsula and East Asia," he said. Korea was colonized by Japan in 1910-45, and many Koreans still harbor deep resentment toward the Japanese. In recent years, South Korea-Japan ties have plunged to their lowest ebb in decades as a result of disputes over history, territory and North Korea.

Jung also said South Korea will "sternly cope with Japanese political leaders' arrogance and reckless remarks" to exploit the North Korean missile dispute in an attempt to transform Japan into "a military powerhouse."

Japan refrained from immediately hitting back at South Korea.

"We'll not comment on such a statement every time," Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinjo Abe said in Tokyo.

South Korea's remarks are, however, expected to deepen its spat with Japan over how to respond to North Korea's missile tests on Wednesday, which triggered worldwide condemnation.

Japan and the United States called for the U.N. Security Council to slap North Korea with economic sanctions, a move China and Russia, both veto-wielding council members, oppose. South Korea also sought a softer, diplomatic solution to the issue.

The U.N. council deferred a vote on the Japanese-introduced proposal of sanctions set for Monday, until a Chinese delegation to Pyongyang returns home.

On Sunday, South Korea's presidential office accused Japan of causing a "fuss" over the missile dispute, which would further ratchet up tension in the region. Japan's Abe countered by expressing "regret" to the South.

As its efforts to impose sanctions on the North appeared to have hit a snag, top Japanese officials rekindled the debate of revising the country's pacifist constitution to conduct a pre-emptive strikes on enemy states.

"If we accept that there is no other option to prevent an attack, there is the view that attacking the launch base of the guided missiles is within the constitutional right of self-defense.

We need to deepen discussion (in this area)," said Abe, a leading candidate to succeed Japan's Prime Minster Junichiro Koizumi.

A top Japanese politician backed Abe's position. "It's irresponsible to do nothing when we know North Korea could riddle us with missiles," said Tsutomu Takebe, secretary general of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

The previous day, Japan's defense minister, Fukushiro Nukaga, said Japan should have "the minimum capability to protect Japanese citizens" and urged the ruling party to discuss the revision of the constitution renouncing war as a sovereign right.

Some critics say Japanese officials are overreacting to the North's missile launches, given that all seven rockets fell into the international waters without causing any damage. They note that the North Korean missile crisis, in some way, boosted the position of conservative forces in Japan ahead of polls to elect the new prime minister in September.

Among the North Korean missiles was a long-range Taepodong-2 rocket that analysts say has the capability to strike the western United States. U.S. officials believe the Taepodong-2's launch ended in a failure since it plunged into the water only 42 seconds after liftoff. The other missiles are believed to be short-range Scud-type missiles and intermediate-range Rodong missiles. The entire Japanese archipelago falls within the range of the Rodong missiles.

North Korea has said its missile tests were part of military exercises and it has the right to test weapons as a sovereign nation. The North said it would test-fire more missiles, vowing to take "stronger actions" if the world applies more pressure on it.

Seoul, July 11 (Yonhap News)