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Chief Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga and Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera on Sunday inspected Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) missile units at the Defense Ministry.
Last week, Onodera said that further provocation was possible from North Korea on Oct 10, which is the date the North celebrates the founding of the North Korean communist party. Tuesday also marks the start of lower house election campaigns in Japan.
Meanwhile, in Pyongyang, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un pledged to continue the country's policy of simultaneously developing nuclear weapons, official media said Sunday, amid a tense diplomatic standoff with the United States.
Kim made the pledge on Saturday in a plenary meeting of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea.
Kim, chairman of the ruling party, accused the United States of trying to "completely stifle the sovereignty, the rights to existence and development" of his country by "cooking up" U.N. sanctions resolutions "one after another with mobilization of (its) vassal forces," according to the Korean Central News Agency.
He was quoted as saying that North Korea's nuclear arms are "a precious fruition borne by its people's bloody struggle for defending the destiny and sovereignty of the country from the protracted nuclear threats of the U.S. imperialists."
North Korea will mark the 72nd anniversary of the ruling party's founding on Tuesday, and there has been speculation among some foreign countries that it may conduct another major weapons test around that day.
© Japan Today/Kyodo
10 Comments
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Mona Lisa Rocketlauncher
Now you have them, whose finger is going to be on the button to use them? Japan or the US? That's what I want to know.
PSandoz
"Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) soldiers walk past a Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) missile"
Well, knock me down with a feather! I could have sworn they were "marching" past the missile. Come on, JT, stop pandering to the pretense that Japan doesn't have a military! If you really want to be full members of the deniers' club, why not say they were "strolling", "promenading" or "ambling"?
Please remember, jingoism starts with the laziness of the press.
toshiko
When PAC3 were delivered to four prefectures that are between Pyongyang and Guam,, description was 'missile interception ' to avoid missile falling to the areas. And when Japan revealed Ashore PAC3 Japan created,, Japan did not state it is missile. Recent reported Japan purchased missile from USA. Which one are they inspecting?
mmwkdw
Well, let's hope they work. We'll find out soon enough and if they don't I guess we won't be able to complain.
OssanAmerica
Pac-3s like the shipborne Aegis systems are to be used by the JSDF when there is a threat to Japan. So obviously Japan controls the button. Even in the event that an enemy missile targets US assets or US territory where Japan now has the ability to intervene, the control would still be with Japan. Actually the more I think about this I wonder why you even bothered to ask such a question.
mmwkdw
Regardless who controls the button..... Does, It, Work ?
The stats reported here:
doesn't really reassure me.
Perhaps shifting GPS signals following a launch detection would have some impact ? Since if it's all based upon simple Newtonian trajectories then anything other than a 100% kill rate would mean something is amiss.
NK and the US, will go Nuclear soon, this is sadly , the only option available. The question is, when and how effective will both sides be.
God help us all.
mmwkdw
Patriot missiles are a last minute defense capability, kiss your ass goodbye if they fail type of thing.
mukashiyokatta
Covered in dust and cobwebs, presumably.
mmwkdw
Thought provoking ?
toshiko
Wait 10/10. N. Korea is still struggling to figure why its supposed to be advanced missile failed.