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 (KCNA), 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 sensitively to Japan's military reinforcement plans, arguing they could worsen a regional arms race, heighten military tensions and bring back memories of Tokyo's past militarism. Japan colonized the Korean Peninsula from 1910-1945. "What is clear is that the increase in military expenditure will not only darken the prospect of the recovery of the Japanese economy but also impose heavy hardships on the people, far from improving Japan's security environment," the KCNA said. The researcher decried Japan's move to bolster defense spending as an "anachronistic calculation," saying it would only worse