North Korea condemns Japan's Tomahawk cruise missile test

North Korea condemned Japan's recent test-firing of a Tomahawk cruise missile, labelling the country a "war criminal state," state media reported Wednesday.

Kim Yo Jong, the powerful younger sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, urged the international community to heighten vigilance over Japan's "wartime expansionism," the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.

"It is now clear that such moves were, after all, a camouflaged tactic to cover up its ambition for a military giant," Kim, an executive of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea, was quoted as saying.

Her remarks came days after Japan's Self-Defense Forces conducted their first test-firing of a US-made Tomahawk cruise missile from a destroyer.

"The international community should heighten vigilance against the reckless military ambition of the descendants of the war criminal state keen on realizing the old daydream of Japan's wartime expansionism," she said.

Japan's national security strategy adopted in 2022 paves the way for the country to acquire the ability to strike enemy missile bases as a self-defense measure within the bounds of its war-renouncing constitution, according to Kyodo News Agency.