{"id":132433,"date":"2026-08-26T07:19:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T07:19:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/132433\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T07:19:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T07:19:08","slug":"north-korea-sharpens-anti-japan-rhetoric-as-russia-ties-grow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/132433\/","title":{"rendered":"North Korea sharpens anti-Japan rhetoric as Russia ties grow"},"content":{"rendered":"

North Korea<\/a> has stepped up its verbal attacks on Japan<\/a>, issuing more than a dozen denunciations through state media since early July and hardening its rhetoric in recent days by accusing Tokyo of whipping up a \u201cneo-militarist frenzy\u201d and preparing for a \u201cwar of aggression\u201d.Analysts said the latest broadsides from Kim Jong-un<\/a>\u2019s regime reflected both renewed confidence in Pyongyang as ties with Moscow deepen, and a desire to frame Asia-Pacific geopolitics as a contest between rival blocs \u2013 mirroring the Nato-Warsaw Pact stand-off at the height of the Cold War.The attacks come amid rising tensions across the region: North Korea is forging deeper security and economic ties with Russia<\/a>, Beijing is increasingly at odds with Tokyo, and Japan is moving to strengthen its defence posture in response to perceived threats from the other three.\"NorthNorth Korea\u2019s leader Kim Jong-un (centre) watches performance tests of a weapons system on the destroyer Kang Kon at an undisclosed location last month. Photo: KCNA \/ KNS \/ AFP<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth Russia and China have problems in their relationships with Japan at the moment and North Korea is keen to participate in the criticisms of Tokyo,\u201d said Andrei Lankov, a Russian-born professor of history and international relations at Seoul\u2019s Kookmin University.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is important for the regime to have an \u2018evil enemy\u2019 that they can complain about and Japan meets that need,\u201d he said. \u201cPyongyang is very keen to side with Russia and China, as it helps to promote the narrative that they are part of a mighty military bloc.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such a bloc is unlikely to materialise any time soon, but analysts say that will not stop Pyongyang from launching further provocations to unsettle Tokyo.<\/p>\n

\"(From(From left) Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un attend a military parade in Beijing last year. Photo: KCNA \/ Korea News Service \/ APOn Monday, Pyongyang\u2019s state-run Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) accused Japanese politicians of \u201charbouring militaristic ambitions\u201d after they paid respects to the nation\u2019s 2.5 million war dead at Tokyo\u2019s Yasukuni Shrine<\/a>, which also honours 1,066 men convicted of war crimes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"North Korea has stepped up its verbal attacks on Japan, issuing more than a dozen denunciations through state…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":132434,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[67467,6989,198,136,134,2992,58245,890,141,5498,26534,132,8015,34,129],"class_list":["post-132433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pyongyang","tag-38-north","tag-andrei-lankov","tag-asia-pacific","tag-beijing","tag-china","tag-cold-war","tag-eastern-economic-forum","tag-japan","tag-kim-jong-un","tag-korea-central-news-agency","tag-kuril-islands","tag-moscow","tag-nato","tag-north-korea","tag-pyongyang"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132433\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}