North Korea said it will pursue unspecified “additional military options” in response to Japan’s expanding defence capabilities, accusing Tokyo of reviving the ambitions of a “war criminal state”. Kim Yo-jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un , said that Pyongyang would not remain a “passive onlooker” to what she described as Japan’s accelerating transformation into a military power, according to a statement published on Wednesday by the official Korean Central News Agency. “War criminal state Japan ’s possession of the capability for pre-emptive attack is a grave threat destroying global peace and security,” Kim said, referring to Tokyo’s efforts to acquire long-range strike capabilities. North Korea would “make Japan feel that its security has been exposed to greater danger due to its greediness”, she said. Kim cited Japan’s recent test-firing of a US-made Tomahawk long-range cruise missile and its participation in US-led military exercises in the Philippines as evidence that Tokyo is speeding up its military expansion.