Pyongyang, April 4 (KCNA) -- Against the backdrop of massive structural reorganization among the Japanese armed forces this spring, the "Space Operations Group" under the Air "Self-Defense Force" was recently raised to the status of the "Space Operations Squadron".

At the same time, the number of persons has increased more than twice.

A small unit in full charge of the space was formed in 2020, and the number of service personnel has increased dozens of times in just a few years. And its name and formation changed into the said names every two to three years, arousing a serious concern of the international community about the reality of the rapidly growing Japanese space force.

Not content with this, the "Space Operations Squadron" will become the "Space Operations Corps" within this year and the Japan Air "Self-Defense Force" will be reportedly renamed the aerospace "Self-Defense Force".

The rapid expansion of the space operations force cannot be seen merely as part of the structural reorganization of the expanded military force as a whole.

As recognized by the public at home and abroad, Japan has long laid legal, material and technical foundations with the ambition to expand the operations scope of the "Self-Defense Forces" into space.

Behind the deceptive "bill" on the use of space for peaceful purposes, Japan had been secretly conducting spy satellite research since the late 1970s. It adopted the "Basic Law on Space" in 2008 to allow military use of outer space under the signboard of "defense" and in 2012 it amended even the clause specifying that aerospace development shall be limited to the peaceful purpose, thus eliminating the legal obstacles hindering the weaponization of outer space.

In 2018, Japan officially declared space to be a new sphere of defense through the new "defense program" and "Midterm Defence Capability Buildup Outline", thus further consolidating the legal foundation for weaponization of outer space.

Japan has established an information gathering satellite system capable of monitoring the whole earth for 24 hours through spy satellites. And it has expanded into a force capable of fighting even a space war by equipping itself even with missile technology and missile interception system.

Against this backdrop, the Japanese reactionaries openly made bellicose remarks that "the exercise of the right to collective self-defense is possible even in space."

What merits more serious attention is that a neo-militarist force has recently become influential in the Japanese political circles, which encourages the ill-boding move to gain the position for preemptive attack even in outer space, while the deployment of the overall military muscle is being changed into an offensive form.

In July last year, the Japanese Defense Ministry adopted for the first time the "Guidelines for Defending Outer Space" for bolstering up the defense capability in outer space. Pulling up China and Russia over its satellite development as a threat to Japan, it clearly specified that it would accelerate the use of space for establishing the so-called "Stand-off Defense Capability" capable of attacking out of the enemy's range of fire.

At a meeting of the aerospace development strategy headquarters in December, it decided on a new process table of the space main plan stipulating that it shall conduct a verification test to cope with a hypersonic glide weapon in outer space, and engage in the launch of a satellite capable of grasping the trend of satellites of other countries.

This shows that the Japanese reactionaries are pushing ahead with the move to develop the space operations force into the one next to the ground, naval and air forces and into a typical preemptive attack force in order to hold a military edge in the outer space.

This is evidenced by the fact that the Japan Air "Self-Defense Force" has worked out an operations plan and staged actual drills for completing a military posture in space in separate drills or in U.S.-led bilateral and multilateral military drills in a few years.

Japan, a war criminal state deprived of the right to have an army, participate in a war and to belligerency, has turned the SDF into a full-fledged offensive force by challenging the international community. Not content with this, it is making desperate efforts to seize outer space as its sphere of activity. This reality clearly shows the dangerous ambition for reinvasion and endless belligerence of the reactionaries of the island country.

The international community is strictly watching Japan's reckless moves for weaponization of outer space that violates the calmness of the universe and the peace of the planet. -0-

www.kcna.kp (2026.04.04.)