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SEOUL: North Korea Wednesday warned of military action against Japan if Tokyo stops its vessels for cargo inspections.
Rodong Sinmun, official daily of the ruling communist party, said Tokyo is pushing for a new law to authorise tougher cargo inspections in search of banned weapons.
"Our ships are sacred and impregnable places where our sovereignty reigns. If anyone hurts them, it would be considered a grave military provocation against us," Rodong said in a commentary.
"This kind of action will immediately meet with our self-defensive military actions and the responsibility for all consequences will rest with Japan."
The paper accused Tokyo of tightening sanctions against the North under the pretext of implementing a United Nations Security Council resolution, in order to "create a legal atmosphere for the use of military force" against Pyongyang.
"It is Japan's calculation that tightened sanctions and increased pressure and blockade against the DPRK (North Korea) would either bring the DPRK into submission or help create a war atmosphere as desired by it," Rodong said.
The Security Council on June 12 tightened sanctions against the North in response to its latest nuclear test.
It authorised member states to request cargo inspections to intercept banned shipments related to the North's nuclear or missile programmes.
Japan separately on June 16 banned all exports to North Korea.
The North Korean government's official daily, Minju Joson, also accused Japan of taking advantage of nuclear and missile "threats" in order "to shake off legal restraints" on its desire to project military power overseas.
Japan imposed harsh colonial rule over the Korean peninsula from 1910-45. North Korea frequently accuses it of trying to revive its 20th century militarism.
Japanese police said Tuesday they had arrested three men for allegedly trying to sell a device to Myanmar that can be used in missile production.
It said the men were acting on the orders of a company linked to North Korea.
- AFP/yb
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