THE EMBASSY OF THE DEMOCRATIC
PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF KOREA TO SWITZERLAND
Pourtalèsstrasse 43
3074 Muri/Bern Switzerland
No 110/26
1. DPRK Foreign Ministry Spokesperson on FATF "Decision"
2. Article on Japanese Neo-militarist Forces' Bid to Increase "Defense Expenditure"
3. Press Statement of DPRK Permanent Mission at UN
DPRK Foreign Ministry Spokesperson on FATF "Decision"
Pyongyang, November 6 (KCNA) -- A spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea gave the following answer to a question raised by KCNA on Thursday as regards the adoption of an anti-DPRK "decision" at the plenary meeting of the Financial Action Task Force on Anti-Money Laundering (FATF) held in Paris, France in late October:
Shortly ago, the Plenary Meeting of the FATF adopted again the "decision" to re-designate the DPRK as a "state subject to countermeasures".
The Foreign Ministry of the DPRK expresses strong displeasure over the international financial supervisory body's abnormal practice of encroaching upon the dignity, rights and interests of a sovereign state, going against its mission to contribute to the establishment of fair international financial order, and resolutely denounces and rejects it.
Explicitly speaking once again, "money laundering", "financing of terrorism", "drug trafficking" and "counterfeiting" have nothing to do with the DPRK as they were fabricated by the U.S. and its vassal forces with the sinister political aim of "demonizing" the former.
As known, we have taken a series of measures on our own initiative to ensure transparency in financial transactions, including several negotiations with the FATF since 2013 and the amendment and supplement of the domestic law on anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism, with an intention to promote the establishment of a sound international financial order.
However, the FATF, persistently disregarding our goodwill and sincere efforts, has designated our country as a "high-risk state threatening the international financial system" and a "state subject to countermeasures" every year, and in 2024 it even deprived us of the observer position at the Asia-Pacific Group on Money Laundering.
All facts clearly prove that the FATF has turned into a conspiracy group and an extremely politicized organization serving the U.S. hostile policy toward the DPRK aimed to encroach upon the normal and legitimate right to development of our state.
The U.S. and the Western forces are chiefly to blame for creating all sorts of criminal acts such as money laundering, terrorism, drug trafficking and WMD proliferation as they unhesitatingly encroach upon the sovereignty and territorial integrity of sovereign states and cause social instability and confusion in different parts of the world in order to realize their ambition for hegemony.
The FATF should be mindful that if it is used as a tool for realizing the political purpose of the dishonest forces, abandoning its fairness and objectivity as an international organization, it will never be able to gain the confidence of the international community but lose its value of existence.
Consistent is the DPRK's stand against all forms of crimes including money laundering and the financing of terrorism.
The DPRK will never tolerate the slightest attempt to infringe upon the dignity, rights and interests of the state but actively join the righteous international community in its efforts to establish a fair international order in the future, too.
Article on Japanese Neo-militarist Forces' Bid to Increase "Defense Expenditure"
Pyongyang, November 6 (KCNA) -- Pak Hak Song, a researcher of the Institute for Japan Studies under the DPRK Foreign Ministry issued the following article "The bid of the neo-militarist forces of Japan to increase 'defense expenditure' will only precipitate its regime and security crisis" on November 5:
The Japanese neo-militarist forces are recklessly scheming to increase defense expenditure, going against the common desire of humankind for the peaceful world free from war and armed conflict.
Extremely dangerous attempt of the Japanese right-wing conservative regime to increase the military expenditure is bringing the dark clouds of a new arms race to Northeast Asia.
Increasing "Defense Expenditure", Clear Proof of Ambition for Reinvasion
80 years have passed since the Second World War ended with the unconditional surrender of Japanese imperialism. However, Japan, a defeated nation obliged to repent of and beg apology for unethical crimes it committed against humankind, remains unchanged in its deep-rooted revanchist ambition.
After its defeat, Japan has worked hard to revive militarism with the backing of the U.S. It is characterized by the course of increasing the military expenditure in a systematic way for arms buildup, enactment of laws and "fundamental bolstering of its defense capability".
In 1976, the Miki Cabinet decided to limit the military expenditure to less than 1% of GDP in order to evade the public blame at home and abroad for its moves to build up the military strength. However, in the 1980s, the Nakasone Cabinet came up with a new military budget framework called a mode of specifying the total amount to be spent for years, annulling the 1% limit in fact.
In particular, in 2022, the Kishida Cabinet officially announced that it would revise the three security-related documents to spend 43 trillion yen from 2023 to 2027 and increase the military expenditure to 2% of GDP in 2027. And the Takaichi Cabinet, which took office last year, increased the related expenses in the supplementary budget for 2025 to attain the goal of raising the military expenditure to 2% of GDP two years earlier than the plan.
Not content with it, the present regime is examining the proposal to spend 70~80 trillion yen as military expenditure for 5 years from 2027 to 2031, almost twice as much as about 43 trillion yen allocated to the current 5-year plan.
It was reported that such huge amount of budget would be allotted to the development of various kinds of latest offensive weapons and drone technology, AI and space technology on a preferential basis to cope with new patterns of war.
The moves of the neo-militarist forces to increase the military expenditure, which is breaking records ceaselessly, are highlighting again the present address of Japan that has entered the course of reinvasion after completely removing the shackles put on the war criminal state.
Increasing "Defense Expenditure" Going against Public Sentiments
It was reported that at a recent expert panel of the Japanese government for revision of three documents on security, there was an opinion that it is needed to extract the funds for increasing the military expenditure mainly from the total amount of budgetary expenditure and increased taxation should not be ruled out to replenish the shortage.
It can be said that the realistic guarantee for increasing the military expenditure lies in securing stable financial resources, but the public at home and abroad are concerned of it, uncertain whether it is possible to do so given the present situation of the Japanese economy suffering from ever-rising prices and ever-weakening yen.
According to data published by the Japan Ministry of Finance in May, Japan's national debt has reached 1 343 842.6 billion yen, an increase of 20 127.1 billion yen from the previous year's, which is more than 2.5 times its GDP, at the end of 2025, and such rate is the highest among the G7 member states.
Earlier, in January, a research institute in Tokyo announced that the number of bankrupt enterprises with debt of more than 10 million yen has reached 10 300 in 2025, a 2.9 % growth from the previous year, exceeding 10 000 in two consecutive years, and that it is an all-time high since 2013.
In this regard, the Japanese public are getting increasingly vocal, calling for putting the brakes on the large-scale arms buildup and drawing up the budget again in due consideration of the people's livelihood, and asserting that there exist not many financial resources for the military expenditure in the run-up to food consumption tax cuts and the expansion of investment at home and abroad.
It is by no means fortuitous that opposition parties and people are strongly opposing the government's arms buildup, saying that peace and security of the state cannot be ensured by increasing the military expenditure, and urging it to maintain the principle of pacifism of the constitution.
What is clear is that the increase in military expenditure will not only darken the prospect of the recovery of the Japanese economy but also impose heavy burden on the people's living, far from improving Japan's security environment.
Increasing "Defense Expenditure" Amplifying Security Crisis of Archipelago
As recognized by the world people, Northeast Asia is witnessing ever-escalating danger of military confrontation due to the U.S. strategy for hegemony. Japan's reckless arms buildup plays a catalyst for further aggravating the regional situation.
Japan seeks to build the foundation for turning itself into a military giant with the backing of its American master and regain the position of the old empire at any cost. Its moves to increase the military expenditure on an unprecedented scale with an aim to secure the capability for preemptive attack on neighboring countries are an act of destroying regional peace and stability and adding fuel to the flames.
If Japan persists in arms buildup without discretion, it will invite inevitable and due response from neighboring countries, and this will result in further escalating the danger of military conflict in the region.
If a military conflict in Northeast Asia starts, there is no guarantee that it will not spill over beyond the region and develop into a new world war threatening the existence of mankind, and the hope for the archipelago's security will become completely meaningless.
If Japan, a war criminal state, properly approaches history, clearly redeems its past crimes and seeks peace without doing anything sinful against neighboring countries again, it has no need to worry about its security.
Japan should refrain from its anachronistic calculation and such gambling as increasing military expenditure, which will aggravate the regime and security crisis, reasonably facing up to the reality.
Press Statement of DPRK Permanent Mission at UN
Pyongyang, November 5 (KCNA) -- The Permanent Mission of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea at the UN made public the following press statement on November 4:
The EU submitted again a "draft resolution" flagrantly distorting the human rights policy and situation of the DPRK to the Third Committee of the 81st Session of the UN General Assembly.
Such a "human rights resolution" farce, staged annually by the EU against the DPRK for 20-odd years, is a politically-motivated provocation, prompted by the sinister intention to paint a black picture of our dignified state under the spurious signboard of "human rights protection" and undermine our ideology and social system.
The Permanent Mission of the DPRK at the UN vehemently denounces and rejects the "draft resolution" as an illegal, conspiratorial and confrontational anti-DPRK document utterly going against the UN Charter that stipulated the respect for sovereignty and non-interference in internal affairs of other countries.
Human rights are by no means a monopoly of the West and no one gave the EU any authority to size up the human rights situations of other countries by a double standard.
Now the international community focuses on the human rights abuses, mass demonstrations and violence simultaneously escalating in European countries that have always found fault with other countries, styling themselves as "human rights champions".
In cities across Europe, from Paris to Brussels where the EU is headquartered, streets are filled with demonstrators from all walks of life demanding such elementary rights as the rights to existence, labour and education, and the realization of social justice. Peaceable demonstrators fall victim to indiscriminate police violence and arrests and even young middle school students have become targets of tear gas and water cannon for they call for improved education.
Such chaos prevailing in European countries is a human rights crisis and political crisis brought by their twisted "human rights standard" and Western-style value concepts, and it clearly shows what an absurd and hypocritical assertion they have made about "human rights".
Such European countries are taking issue with the human rights situation of others although they should stand trial for human rights abuses. This is, indeed, a tragicomic political cartoon.
The EU had better mind its own business, instead of hyping up the non-existent "human rights issues" of far-flung sovereign states, ignorant of where they are standing.
The human rights system and situation of a country should be appreciated by its people rather than the outside forces harboring hostility.
In the DPRK, guided by the people-first political idea, the state policy and efforts are ceaselessly promoted to protect the socio-political rights of all citizens and improve their material and cultural wellbeing, and its people are increasingly satisfied with their human rights.
No such "human rights" farce of the European countries, which desperately stoke confusion between right and wrong out of their inveterate prejudice and evil mindset toward the DPRK, can ever prevent the international community from giving fair voice about our state's social system.
The DPRK will never tolerate any hostile forces' attempt to infringe upon the peaceful life and rights of its people but fully discharge its responsibility for safeguarding their dignity, rights and interests.