- (AFP) -- Japan will "meet a fatal fiasco" if
it continues to blindly follow US policy, Pyongyang's official Korean Central
News Agency (KCNA) said.
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- It said Japan's cabinet had approved a statement defending
American use of cluster bombs in Iraq, saying the targets were "carefully
selected" and that the US military "strove to prevent civilians
from falling victim" to them.
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- "This was nothing but Japan's shameful act of flattery
and servile support for its master, the US," said the report Tuesday,
quoting a commentary in the North Korean ruling party mouthpiece Rodong
Sinmun.
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- "Japan's act of supporting and shielding the US
use of weapons of mass destruction indicates that it will leave no means
untried for overseas aggression as the US does," it said.
-
- "The Japanese authorities are well advised to bear
in mind that if they continue acting blindly to the tune of the US out
of their senses, they will only meet a fatal fiasco," the report said.
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- A Japanese foreign ministry spokesman said the statement,
passed by the cabinet on May 7 in response to an opposition legislator's
question, merely "acknowledged" the US stance, however, and did
not amount to approval.
-
- The United States has drawn criticism from rights groups
for its use of cluster bombs in Iraq, Afghanistan and other conflicts.
-
- The weapons explode and release hundreds of smaller bomblets
that disperse over a wide area. Three US soldiers were injured in early
May when a suspected US cluster bomb exploded inside a major US base in
northern Iraq.
-
- Pyongyang on Monday threatened South Korea with "disaster"
for the second time in a week in anger at Seoul's tougher line on the nuclear
crisis.
-
- The new threat came three days after South Korea pledged
to supply 400,000 tonnes of rice to the destitute Stalinist state that
Washington says has admitted developing nuclear weapons and already possesses
at least one or two.
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