The "law" extends the operational theatre of the Japan "Self-Defense Forces" (SDF) to the open sea from the original scope of territorial waters of Japan and its neighboring waters, thus making it possible for it to carry out military operations in any sea. The "law" also invested the SDF with the "policing" for keeping "public security" abroad under the pretext of checking all piracies.

This has brought to light Japan's ambition to conduct active military operations in major international sea routes under the pretext of "combating piracy" and "ensuring security along the sea routes" and thus launch reinvasion.

It is a strategic goal and an indispensable requirement of the Japanese reactionaries to have the SDF's overseas advance justified for reinvasion.

To this end, Japan modified the existing Constitution which bans the exercise of the "right to collective self-defense" and overseas military operations, and has since persistently pushed ahead with the moves to lay an institutional and legal groundwork necessary for the overseas dispatch of the SDF.

Various laws were instituted and put into force to justify the SDF's "advance" into continents and oceans.

To cite a few examples, Japan adopted "law on cooperation in UN peace-keeping operations", "law on emergency in surrounding areas", "law on special measures against terrorism" and "law on emergency", etc. and "dispatched" the SDF to several countries.

The "law on combating piracy" is an extension of such moves which more glaringly revealed the Japanese reactionaries' ambition for aggression and militarism.

The SDF seeks to participate in military operations for "protecting" ships of other countries including the U.S. in the open sea any time and tighten Japan's military nexus with the U.S.

Japan also seeks a sinister intention to realize military domination over the major international sea routes and perpetrate high-handed and arbitrary practices.

It is contemplating keeping the SDF in the waters off Somalia for an indefinite period and putting the economic arteries of those countries conducting trade through this sea route under its control.

This proves that Japan is set to repeat its acts of aggression dating back to the Second World War when it resorted to high-handed and arbitrary practices in the Strait of Malacca after massively hurling warships there and sparking off armed conflicts and looting people's properties under the pretext of "wiping out pirates".

The above-said "law" allows firing at hulls of ships under the pretext of "stopping them," a very intolerable criminal act.

No one can predict what the Japanese militarists seized by overseas expansion and reinvasion would do in operational waters now that the use of weapons is allowed. They may launch armed attack on ships of other countries or conduct military actions against the neighboring countries under the pretext of "combating piracy."

The DPRK can never remain an on-looker to the development as the law was enacted at a time when Japan is kicking up anti-DPRK racket, trumpeting about "adjustment of law" and unilateral "sanctions" for the implementation of the UNSC "resolution".

The DPRK has already warned that it would counter any attempted check, inspection and blockade against ships or any other objects to which the sovereignty of the DPRK is exercised with powerful military counterattacks.

In case Japan attempts to check and inspect DPRK-flagged ships and other objects on the strength of the above-said law the DPRK will mercilessly retaliate against it.