Japan to buy missile defenses from U.S.

In response to increasing fears over North Korea’s recently announced nuclear-weapons capability, Japan revealed today it will purchase a U.S.-made missile defense system.

In 1998, North Korea launched a ballistic missile over Japan, and security fears in the island nation have been growing since, especially in light of admissions from North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Il that his nation is nuclear-tipped.

“There is no intent to harm other countries. This is a completely defensive system,” Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda told a news conference today, reports Reuters.

Part of the Japanese government’s planned defense review, said Fukuda, is to rethink Japan’s self-imposed ban on arms exports, in light of the desire to pursue joint development with the U.S. of a state-of-the-art missile defense system

The proposed Japanese missile-defense system would comprise two stages: The first would involve Japan’s acquisition of Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) systems capable of being fired from Japan’s four Aegis destroyers at missiles in mid-course. The second component of the system would consist of ground-to-air Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) missiles, reports Reuters.

China will not be happy over Japan’s announcement today. “The Chinese have a number of concerns over the U.S. efforts to develop a missile defense system,” Robert Karniol, Asia-Pacific editor of Jane’s Defense Weekly, told Reuters. “One is that it threatens to negate the Chinese nuclear deterrent force. Another is that it has potential application over the conflict in Taiwan.”

Concern over Pyongyang’s astonishing nuclear revelations were overshadowed by the then-imminent invasion of Iraq earlier this year, but behind the scenes, the Bush administration is alarmed over developments in the “axis of evil” nation.

In March, for instance, Kim Myong-Chol, an unofficial spokesman for North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Il, warned that North Korean missiles could hit all of the U.S., and that the regime had no problems contemplating launching them.

”North Korean ballistic missiles can reach any part of the United States of America,” he said. ”There is no shelter for Bush.”

He told reporters in Tokyo that a pre-emptive strike by the U.S. on North Korea’s nuclear facility at Yongbyon ”means nuclear war,” according to a report in the Sydney Morning Herald.

”If American forces carry out a pre-emptive strike on the Yongbyon facility, North Korea will immediately target, carry the war to the U.S. mainland,” he said, adding that New York, Washington and Chicago would be ”aflame.”

The pariah regime was reportedly distressed over U.S.-South Korean war games then taking place near the demilitarized zone separating the north from the south. Pyongyang said the exercises proved Washington was planning a military strike on its nuclear reactor at Yongbyon.

In comments published by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Kim said Pyongyang wants to reunify the two Koreas and expel U.S. troops from the south more than it wants economic aid from the West.

He predicted President Bush would be in Pyongyang before the end of the year looking for peace in the region. ”This year, most likely by the end of this year, I predict Bush will be in Pyongyang pushing for peace,” he said.