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Japan Says Would Strike N.Korea if Attack Imminent
By REUTERS
Filed at 9:57 a.m. ET
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan would launch a military
strike against North Korea if it had firm evidence
that the Stalinist state was ready to attack with
ballistic missiles, Japanese Defense Minister
Shigeru Ishiba said Thursday.
``It is too late if (a missile) flies toward
Japan,'' Ishiba told Reuters in an interview.
``Our nation will use military force as a
self-defense measure if (North Korea) starts 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 if it determined that the missile was
pointed at Japan.
Ishiba said that Japan would only attack North
Korea as a clearly defensive measure. ``We
differentiate this from the concept of a
'pre-emptive strike','' he said.
Japan's postwar constitution bans war as a means
to settle international disputes, but that has
been interpreted to mean the nation's military
must be restricted to self-defense.
Known as a hawkish defense expert, Ishiba, 46,
also said Japan ought to 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.
While Japan has refrained from voicing strong
support for the U.S. national missile defense
system (NMD), it is jointly studying with
Washington a theater missile defensesystem, a
variant of the NMD, aimed at shielding U.S. troops
in Asia and its allies. Tokyo decided to study the
system after North Korea launched a ballistic
missile that passed over Japan in August 1998.
But China has voiced strong opposition to a
regional missile system, partly out of fears that
it would be extended to include Taiwan, which it
views as a renegade province.
MISSILE THREAT FROM N.KOREA
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 major population areas
including Tokyo were within the estimated 600 mile
range of the missile.
U.S. officials said 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.
Washington also says North Korea probably has one
or two nuclear weapons, but Ishiba declined
comment on whether Japan had any independent
confirmation of that assertion.
``There is no reason for us to rule out the
possibility that North Korea has nuclear
weapons,'' Ishiba said.
He also said an unspecified number of Rodong
missiles with ranges of 750 miles were deployed in
North Korea.
``This is nothing but a threat to our country,''
said Ishiba, who visited Pyongyang in 1992 when
the reclusive Stalinist state marked the 80th
birthday of its ``Great Leader,'' the late Kim
Il-sung. Defense experts have said North Korea
began to develop and produce ballistic missiles in
the early 1980s, when it reverse-engineered a
Soviet Scud-B missile with a range of 190 miles
for a one-ton payload.
In the 1990s, Pyongyang began developing the
Rodong-1 ballistic missile, and then the Rodong-2,
they say.
The Rodong 1 is based on the Soviet Scud design
used by Iraq in the Gulf War, and the Rodong 2 is
a similar version with a range of about 900 miles.
Defense experts also believe North Korea has been
developing missiles such as the Taepodong 1 and 2,
with ranges of up to 6,000 km (3,750 miles).
EYES ON MILITARY BUILDUP
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 for its
defense.
``There is nothing like a free ride in the
post-Cold War era,'' he said.
Japan had to rely on U.S. data at the time of the
1998 missile launch but plans to send up four of
its own spy satellites in the next couple of
years, beginning this March.
Tokyo and Washington boosted their military
alliance in 1998 to its highest level since the
end of World War II, setting off fears in China
that the pact was designed to protect Taiwan in
the event of Chinese military action against the
island.
Ishiba also said the government would press for
enactment by Japan's Parliament of so-called
``crisis legislation,'' which would broaden the
ability of the military to act in the case of a
direct attack on Japan and could limit the rights
of citizens in certain circumstances.
``This is the legislation designed to prevent
war... We must prepare so we will not be exposed
to attacks,'' he said.
Such legal changes are highly contentious in Japan
given memories of the suppression of civil rights
before and during World War II.
Japan's efforts to strengthen its ability to
defend itself have been prompted in large part by
potential threat from North Korea, although
China's military buildup is also a factor.
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