Posted on 02/13/2003 5:57:20 AM PST by Enemy Of The State
Thursday, February 13, 2003 Posted: 4:06 PM HKT (0806 GMT)
TOKYO, Japan (Reuters) -- Japan would launch a military strike against North Korea if Tokyo had firm evidence that the Stalinist state was ready to attack with ballistic missiles, Japanese Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba said.
"It is too late if [a missile] flies towards Japan," Ishiba told Reuters in an interview on Thursday.
"Our nation will use military force as a self-defense measure if [North Korea] started to resort to arms against Japan," he said, adding that Japan could regard the process of injecting fuel into a missile as the start of military attack.
Ishiba, known as a hawkish defense expert, also said Tokyo should develop a missile defense system with the United States since it lacks the capability to defend itself from missile attacks from North Korea.
"To develop and deploy [a missile defense system] is one of the major options. Our nation should pursue this," he said.
Ishiba, who took over the defense portfolio last September, said that in the longer term Japan could boost its military strength in order to reduce dependence on the United States.
Ishiba's remarks come as tensions run high over North Korea's suspected nuclear weapons program and Pyongyang's insistence that it is free to launch ballistic missiles.
In 1993, North Korea upset Japan by test-firing a medium-range Rodong-1 missile into the Sea of Japan.
And in August 1998, North Korea launched a three-stage Taepodong-1 missile over Japan, demonstrating that parts of western Japan were within the estimated 1,000-km (600-mile) range of the missile.
U.S. officials said on Wednesday that Pyongyang had a three-stage Taepodong-2 missile that could reach the West Coast of the United States, but that the missile had not been tested. (Full story)
Washington also says North Korea probably has one or two atomic weapons, but Ishiba declined comment on whether Japan had any independent confirmation of that assertion.
Japan has zero friends on the Asian mainland, rightfully so, however at the present time they need us and we need them, so lets make a deal.
Don't stick the tiger in the eye with a stick too many times.
He'll be docile and quiet, all the while planning a way to smack the crud out of you in revenge and self defense once you glance away briefly. He will feign weakness and patience, but inside, his blood is boiling and his plans are racing in his mind.
It's no 'sneak attack'. It is simply an explosion that the person with the stick should have figured all along.
I think Kim Jong il is terribly mis-reading Japan as a bunch of pussies and he is liable to be taught a bitter lesson.
ZERO TOLERANCE FOR N.KOREAN MISSILE TESTING/LAUNCH POLICY
We must announce that any N.K. missile launch during this time, even if for testing, will be considered an attack upon the United States. Kim Jong il must be put in his corner.
My information from Japan sources today were that the N.Koreans hurredly conducted dry land/above land missile engine firing tests on their northwest coast, in full view of our intel satellites. This occured in the very opening period of January , just a little over a month ago. They suddenly stopped the tests in midstream. The theories are a) they did this purposely knowing they were on 'candid camera' to send a message to the US for negotiating strength, or b) the did the tests and there was an actual failure midstream that forced them to abandon actual rocket engine ignition. Multiple/recent statements by the US administration with respect to N. Korean missile technology shows they are very concerned there will be a Taepodong-2 launch, probably transversing the Japanese archipelago.
I personally think the President's national security team want to very publicly set the stage in the world's mindset that there is a seriously impending missile/nuke combined problem, in advance of announcing a Cuban Missile Crisis type policy forbidding any missile launches (which makes sense) by North Korea directed anywhere in East Asia and the Pacific.
Translation? Pre-emptive strike.
If we feel uneasy about N. Korea, with the Pacific Ocean between us, imagine how the Japanese feel, with this psychopath just over the back fence.
Atheistic communism needs confrontation and upheaval, or it dies. Its whole fabric is based on "struggle". It cannot exist in a peaceful situation Right now, N. Korea is in its death throes and it must engage in some sort of violent conflict or die.
In fact, it will die anyway. The only question is whether it dies a violent, bloody death or simply lies down and goes to sleep like eastern Europe did in the late '80s and early '90s.
America has sacrificed the cream of its youth in three consecutive generations to create and protect freedom in Asia. Maybe it's time for our allies in the Pacific to get into the game.
"To develop and deploy [a missile defense system] is one of the major options. Our nation should pursue this," he said."
Means several years from now they might be able to do something well short of what Shigeru Ishiba claims is necessary - perhaps tomorrow.
It IS probably time for a deal, we provide both surface to surface and surface to air capability and maybe a few electronic/surveilance bumps, and pull our troops away from Japanese soil with a promise to help out with airpower etc.
ROK also needs to make up its mind whether to be a target of Japan or a target of N. Korea.
Ah, the glories of a new world order.
"Calling All Monsters, the sequel".
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