North Korea has criticized Japan's push to deploy a new missile defense system, calling the country a "malignant cancer" that destroys peace and stability in Northeast Asia.

Rodong Sinmun, the newspaper of the North Korean ruling party, said Tuesday that Japan's plan to set up a pair of the U.S.-developed Aegis Ashore antimissile system is part of a scheme to turn into a military powerhouse, and added that this move cannot be left unchecked.

The newspaper noted that Japan's ultimate goal is to invade other countries and the Aegis Ashore targets not only the Korean Peninsula but also China and Russia.

The North added Japan's past aggression wreaked havoc on Asian countries and that it paid the price for committing crimes against humanity.

It argued that Japan's missile plan is an explicit claim to repeat its past.

North Korea's official Korea Central News Agency also carried a similar op-ed, saying that the descendants of the samurais remain unchanged in their ambition to become the leading Asian power through an arms buildup despite the warm wind of detente blowing on the Korean Peninsula and the region.