North Korea warns Japan against deploying long-range missiles in Kyushu, KCNA says

PHOTO CAPTION: Illustrative photo — A Surface-to-Surface missile from a High Mobility Artillery Missile System (HIMARS) clears the tree line as it heads to its target during a training exercise at Yausubetsu Training Area, Hokkaido, Japan on Sept. 20, 2023. (Photo by U.S. Army National Guard Staff Sgt. Ryan S. Gay via U.S. Defense Visual Information Distribution Service (DVIDS))

SEOUL (Reuters) -     North Korea warned Japan against deploying long-range missiles in the Kyushu region in March 2026, saying such attack capability will "bring about constant escalation of tension" in Northeast Asia, state media KCNA said on Thursday.

Tokyo was considering deploying long-range missiles on Kyushu as part of attempts to acquire "counterstrike capabilities" to hit enemy targets in the event of an emergency, Japan's Kyodo News reported this month, citing government sources.

Pyongyang accused Japan of continuing a past history of aggression through moves such as a constant strengthening of the Japan-U.S. military alliance and collusion with NATO forces, KCNA said, citing the policy section chief of the Institute for Japan Studies under North Korea's Foreign Ministry. 

"All military means and various forms of movement directly targeting the DPRK... are an object to be wiped out," the KCNA report said, using the abbreviation of North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said last month that trilateral military cooperation among the United States, Japan and South Korea was raising tensions in the region and vowed countermeasures, including the further development of nuclear forces.

 (Reporting by Joyce Lee; Editing by Ed Davies)