KCNA Commentary on Scramble among Regional Powers for Sphere of Influence

  Pyongyang, January 23 (KCNA) -- The situation remains very tense in Northeast Asia.
    The political and military stand-off is growing ever more acute between China and Japan, in particular.
    On Jan. 9 several Chinese fighters and those of the "Self-Defense Forces" of Japan flew close to each other in the air over the Strait of Tsushima.
    These encounters of fighters of the two countries pushed the situation in the region to a touch-and go-situation.
    As regards Japan's protest against the above-said incident, the Chinese military clarified its stand that it is a "routine drill" and "Japan seems to be not accustomed to such drill as the Chinese People's Liberation Army conducts a few similar rehearsals."
    The Chinese side openly claims that "China may go as it pleases and there is no need to discuss with Japanese what it does there."
    Japan does not hide the fact that it targets China, stepping up its moves for militarization after building legal and institutional mechanisms for meeting the requirements of a "war state."
    The U.S. is becoming evermore undisguised in its provocative military moves to contain China politically and militarily in the region.
    It has deployed the bulk of its strategic nuclear force in the region pursuant to its scenario for dominating Asia-Pacific. It is putting spurs to rounding off the triangular military "cooperation" involving the U.S., south Korea and Japan and its arms buildup.
    Owing to the above-said moves, the situation in Northeast Asia is inching close to such dangerous phase that a nuclear war may break out and rendering the arms race in the region fiercer.
    The reality goes to prove that the tension is escalating in the region not because of the DPRK's measures for bolstering up its capability for self-defence but due to the U.S. provocative muscle flexing and scramble among regional powers for sphere of influence in the region.
    The on-going scramble is not comparable with the conflict in the last century due to the persistence of the strategies and the level of the modern forces involved.
    Whenever the DPRK took a measure for self-defence, some countries demanded any action deteriorating the situation be halted as if something serious happened. Now they had better find logical words to say. -0-