Japan to shoot down DPRK missile

TOKYO: Japan gave its military the green light on Friday to shoot down any incoming North Korean rocket, with tensions high ahead of a planned launch that the US and allies say will be an illegal missile test.

Japanese and US warships have already deployed ahead of the April 4-8 window, when the secretive North has said it will launch a communications satellite — warning that shooting it down would be seen as an act of war.

But South Korea, Japan and the United States have all warned the North that any launch would be unacceptable, amid fears the regime is actually intending to test a long-range missile that could reach North America.

Russia — which with the two Koreas, China, Japan and the US is part of a six-party forum working on the North’s nuclear disarmament — urged Pyongyang not to carry out the launch, saying there was no need to “ignite passions”.

The security council in Japan, officially pacifist since the end of World War II, decided ahead of time to shoot down any incoming missile that could hit its territory rather than wait until a launch. “The security council this morning decided to issue a destruction order in advance,” said Defence Minister Yasukazu Hamada. “We will do our best to handle any flying object from North Korea.”

Japan later began relocating its Patriot missile defence batteries ahead of the expected rocket launch, local media reported. The North said on Thursday that even referring a launch to the United Nations would ruin the long-running and erratic six-nation nuclear disarmament talks, during which North Korea has already tested one missile and an atomic bomb.

US National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair said the North wanted to show it had the technology to launch an intercontinental ballistic missile. The North is believed to be preparing to test a Taepodong-2 that could hit Alaska.

“North Korea is attempting to demonstrate an ICBM capability through a space launch,” Blair said.

Japan has announced no plans to strike the North Korean rocket unless it appears to pose a direct threat, for example due to a mishap that could send an errant missile or debris flying toward the country.

“There are various scenarios — for example, a case of failure,” Hamada said. “It’s extremely unpleasant that an object flies over our territories.” Pyongyang has reportedly already put a rocket onto one of its launch pads, raising the stakes in a delicate diplomatic stand-off that has come just two months into the new US administration of President Barack Obama.

North Korea said on Thursday that bringing any launch to the United Nations would be a “hostile action” that would end the negotiations.

The United States, which says the launch would violate a UN Security Council resolution, has vowed to do so.

“The six-party talks will become non-existent,” a spokesman for the North’s foreign ministry told official media. In Moscow, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexei Borodavkin told reporters: “North Korea would be better off refraining from it.”

“There is no need to ignite passions around this problem,” he was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies.

Meanwhile, South Korea’s nuclear envoy headed to Washington on Friday for talks with US officials as regional powers scrambled to coordinate a joint strategy for North Korea’s planned rocket launch.

In Washington, envoy Wi Sung-lac plans to meet President Barack Obama’s envoys on North Korea, Stephen Bosworth and Sung Kim as well as with Japan’s nuclear envoy, Akitaka Saiki, who will also be in Washington, South Korea’s Foreign Ministry.

“As North Korea’s rocket launch preparations gather pace, I will have consultations on the issue and the six-way talks” on dismantling the North’s nuclear programme, Wi told reporters before his departure.