North Korean leader Kim Jong Un condemned Japan for turning into a “war state” as he called for expanding Pyongyang’s military defences.

“Japan, a defeated country in Asia, has openly turned itself into a ‘war state’ by taking the present disturbing circumstances as an opportunity to get rid of all shackles restricting it from becoming a military power,” he was quoted as saying by the news agency KCNA on Tuesday.

“This is inviting a strong backlash and serious concern from the international community.”

Japan has shifted away from its pacifist policy under prime minister Sanae Takaichi, whose cabinet hasalready lifted a ban on exporting lethal weapons, including fighter jets.

The change in policy has also attracted condemnation from China. Foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said earlier that the global community would “resolutely resist Japan’s reckless moves toward a new type of militarism”.

Tokyo, however, has defended the change. Chief cabinet secretary Minoru Kihara said the new policy would “ensure safety for Japan and further contribute to the peace and stability in the region and the international society as the security environment around our country rapidly changes”. The Japanese government, he said, was looking to “strategically promote defence equipment transfers to create a security environment that is desirable for Japan and to build-up the industrial base that can support fighting resilience”.

Japan’s pacifist constitution, drafted after its defeat in World War II under the supervision of the US, prohibited most military exports except for rescue, transport, alerts, surveillance and minesweeping.

The new guidelines scrap such limits and allow the export of equipment such as fighter jets, missiles and naval destroyers.

That’s a big change from exporting equipment like flak jackets, gas masks and civilian-use vehicles to Ukraine and intelligence radars to the Philippines.

It is these policy changes that Mr Kim’s comments about Japan’s “moves to become a military power” and “militarism” are seen to reference.

Mr Kim pushed for expanding his country’s defence capabilities, ordering a build-up of conventional weapons and accelerated construction of a 10,000-tonne strategic guided missile cruiser.

"Unimaginable, astonishing incidents and events" were taking place because of the "gangster-like" greed of hegemonic forces, making confrontations around the world more ​violent, the leader said, blaming the US for worsening bloodshed in Europe and the Middle East.

Mr Kim also accused the US ⁠and its ally South Korea of making the security situation on the Korean Peninsula more perilous by steadily upgrading their combined nuclear posture, ​the only purpose of which, he said, was to attack North Korea.

In this situation, he argued, exercising its position as a nuclear state was the only way for North Korea to cope with an unpredictable and complicated global security situation.

"To steadily expand and strengthen the nuclear forces and to thoroughly ​exercise the position of a nuclear weapons state is the most correct and unique way to actively and confidently cope with the unpredictable international military and political situation getting complicated in multiple ways," he said.