By Alex Jensen
SEOUL (AA) - North Korea criticized Japan Tuesday for "throwing cold water” over easing tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
The accusation carried by the official Rodong Sinmun newspaper was referring to Tokyo's public support for continued sanctions and maximum pressure until the North demonstrates its commitment to fully abandon any lingering nuclear weapon ambitions.
Pyongyang's commentary was also published on the eve of a trilateral leaders' summit between Japan, South Korea and China, with Tokyo expected to insist on the North's “complete, verifiable and irreversible” denuclearization -- although Seoul's presidential office last week dismissed the suggestion as unnecessary because it already secured a broad denuclearization and peace agreement during the inter-Korean summit on April 27.
The U.S. is set to clarify the details of that agreement when President Donald Trump holds an unprecedented meeting with his North Korean counterpart Kim Jong-un in the coming weeks.
Some analysts view Pyongyang's criticism as a diplomatic tactic, especially given Japan's relative isolation so far from this year's denuclearization breakthrough.
The North additionally claimed Tokyo harbors an aim to reinvade Korea, drawing on shared historical grievances with the South stemming from Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule over the entire peninsula.