BEIJING - North Korea on Monday criticized Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi for bowing toward the war-linked Yasukuni shrine in Tokyo earlier this month, with state-run media saying her gesture reflects "militaristic ambition that has gone to extremes."
"It is something rare to be seen that the incumbent prime minister made a bow toward the shrine on the day of defeat," the official Korean Central News Agency said in its commentary.
Takaichi, known for her hawkish security policies, did not visit the shrine, which honors convicted war criminals along with millions of war dead, on Aug. 15, the 81st anniversary of Japan's surrender in World War II.
However, she did send a ritual offering and attended a memorial for the war dead, performing the bow in the parking lot of the Nippon Budokan hall, located a few hundred meters from the shrine.
Before becoming prime minister last October, she regularly visited the Shinto shrine on the war anniversary.
The shrine has long been a source of diplomatic friction with neighboring countries that suffered under Japanese wartime aggression. Japan invaded large parts of China before World War II and colonized the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945.
KCNA claimed in its commentary that the Takaichi government has "pursued such extremely dangerous military policy" not seen in the preceding administrations, referring to her attempts to revise Japan's three nonnuclear principles among other measures.
The Takaichi government is reportedly reconsidering the three principles of not possessing, producing or allowing nuclear weapons in Japan, ahead of the revision of key national security documents by the end of the year.
"Japan is bound to repeat its past as it never draws a lesson but wantonly denies its past as a war criminal country and a defeated nation," the commentary said.
Recently, North Korea has aligned with China in criticizing Japan, accusing Tokyo of pursuing "neo-militarism." On Aug. 17, KCNA criticized Takaichi over her ritual offering to Yasukuni and Japanese Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi for his visit to the shrine.
