Japan still views North Korea as most serious threat in its 2018 defense white paper

The Japanese government’s defense white paper for 2018 refers to North Korea as “a more grave and critical threat to the safety of Japan than has ever existed before.”

Also reasserts its claim to “sovereign territory” of Dokdo

Even though North Korea is currently in denuclearization talks with the US, Japan still regards the North as “a more grave and critical threat to the safety of Japan than has ever existed before.”

On Aug. 28, the Japanese government adopted this year’s defense white paper during a cabinet meeting. In the white paper, Tokyo said that North Korea “has carried out six nuclear missile tests to date and 40 ballistic missile test launches since 2016. These military developments constitute a more grave and critical threat to the safety of Japan than has ever existed before.”

Last year, Japan wrote that North Korea “is becoming a grave and critical threat to the safety of the region and the international community. Its development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles and its improvement of their operational abilities are taking this threat to a new level.”

This year’s white paper replaced the modifying phrase “new level” with “than has ever existed before,” which still emphasizes the North Korean threat.

Japan provided the following explanation for why it had not changed its viewpoint in regard to North Korea’s military threat: “While we think it is significant that Chairman Kim Jong-un gave clear assurances in writing of his determination to achieve complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in the joint statement after the North Korea-US summit in June, there has been no change in North Korea’s basic attitude toward the nuclear weapon and missile threat since that summit and even today.”

Arguing for the need to prepare for North Korea’s missile threat, the Japanese government is pushing ahead with the deployment of “Aegis Ashore,” a land-based version of the ballistic missile interceptor system installed on Aegis destroyers. Japan’s Defense Ministry is projected to ask the government to allocate between 5.2 and 5.4 trillion yen (US$46.7-48.5 billion) to defense next year, which would be the most the country has ever spent on defense.

Reassertion of claim to Dokdo, or “Takeshima”

On a different topic, this year’s defense white paper once again referred to “the still unresolved issue of the Northern Territories and Takeshima, which are Japan’s sovereign territory.” The Northern Territories are the four southern islands in the Kuril islands, while Takeshima is the Japanese name for Dokdo.

“We strongly protest the Japanese government repeating its inappropriate territorial claims to Dokdo and urge it to immediately retract those claims,” the spokesperson for South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

South Korea’s Foreign Ministry summoned Koichi Mizushima, minister at the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, while the Defense Ministry summoned Toru Nagashima, the embassy’s military attaché, in protest of the claims.

By Cho Ki-weon, Tokyo correspondent, and Kim Ji-eun, staff reporter

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