(ATTN: ADDS unification ministry's response in last 3 paras)

SEOUL, Aug. 11 (Yonhap) -- North Korea on Tuesday denounced Japan's latest defense white paper, calling it an attempt to justify the country's military buildup and describing it as legal basis for "the operation of war machine."

Kang Won-chol, an international security analyst, made the claims in an article published by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) and the Rodong Sinmun, the most widely read newspaper in the North.

Kang said the white paper came out at a time when "Japan has been rushing headlong into militarization, seized with an ambition for reinvasion."

He argued Japan had "groundlessly" described North Korea as a "serious and imminent threat" in the white paper to justify its "reckless" military buildup.

"It is nothing but an act of turning black into white that Japan stipulated the 'threat' from neighboring countries in the white paper although it has been putting spurs to the tightening of the alliance with the U.S. and its followers after setting it as a 'state policy' to negate its past crimes and realize its ambition to become a military power," he wrote.

He also cited Japanese Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi's call to strengthen the country's military capabilities following the release of the white paper as evidence of Tokyo's push toward militarization.

"This clearly shows how desperately he is pushing Japan into following an extremely dangerous road in the vanguard for militarization," he argued.

"No matter how hard Japan tries to describe its real intention for aggression as 'defense,' it will never conceal its true colors as a root cause of endangering the peace and escalating the tensions in the region," he added.

He, then, sought to justify North Korea's own military buildup, arguing strengthening its military capabilities was necessary to deter what it described as the hostile intentions of other countries.

Japan published its first defense white paper under the current Sanae Takaichi government last Tuesday. The paper called for military modernization, including the integration of cutting-edge technologies, such as drones and artificial intelligence, as well as closer cooperation with allies to address growing security concerns in the region.

An official at South Korea's unification ministry said the ministry did not place much weight on what it described as Pyongyang's "annual" denunciation of Japan's defense white paper.

"North Korea's criticism of Japan's defense white paper is not unusual in itself," the official said, while noting the increasing volume of such criticism in recent days, including Pyongyang's escalating condemnation of trilateral cooperation among South Korea, the United States and Japan.

"We see it as Pyongyang's attempt to justify its nuclear weapons program and align itself with China and Russia," the official said, adding, "We will watch the situation closely."

jaeyeon.woo@yna.co.kr

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