N. Korea says Japan's push to raise defense spending will only burden its people

North Korea on Friday criticized Japan's push to increase defense spending, saying it will darken prospects of Japan's economic recovery and impose "heavy hardships" on its people. In an article carried by the official Korean Central News Agency, a researcher at the Institute for Japan Studies under the North's foreign ministry, issued the criticism, following reports that Tokyo is considering nearly doubling its defense expenditures over the next five years. The North has long responded sensiti