ISTANBUL

North Korea said on Saturday that Japan’s attempt to “go nuclear” must be prevented after a senior Japanese government official reportedly suggested Tokyo needs nuclear weapons, state media KCNA reported on Sunday.

"The war criminal state Japan's attempt to go nuclear must be prevented at any cost as it will bring mankind a great disaster," a press statement released by the director of the Institute for Japan Studies under the North Korean Foreign Ministry read.

The reaction from North Korea came after Kyodo News reported that a source from the Japanese prime minister's office told journalists during an unofficial exchange that Tokyo “needs to possess nuclear weapons.”

The remarks prompted criticism from both ruling and opposition parties, which called for the official’s removal.

Japan on Friday reiterated its commitment to “maintain the so-called three non-nuclear principles, which prohibit possessing, producing or permitting the introduction of nuclear arms.”

As the only country to have suffered atomic bombing during war, Tokyo will continue pursuing “realistic and practical measures to achieve a world without nuclear weapons” under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara told a news conference.

On Aug. 6, 1945, the US dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, killing an estimated 140,000 people. A second bomb hit Nagasaki on Aug. 9, killing another 70,000.