Japan strike threat to Korea
By Shane Green, Herald Correspondent in Tokyo
February 15 2003
Japan is prepared to launch a pre-emptive strike on North Korea if it believes the communist state is preparing a missile attack against it.
In Tokyo's toughest military stand since the end of World War II, the Defence Minister, Shigeru Ishiba, said Japan would make the strike if it detected that North Korea was fuelling missiles for an attack.
"It is too late if [a missile] flies towards Japan," he said in an interview with Reuters. "Our nation will use military force as a self-defence measure if [North Korea] starts to resort to arms against Japan."
Mr Ishiba, a hawk who was appointed defence chief last September, was at pains to portray such a strike as an act of self-defence, in line with Japan's postwar constitution, which forbids military aggression.
He also made it clear that Japan was not on the verge of launching a strike, saying: "We have no confirmation that there is an imminent danger of a missile launch [from North Korea]. The situation is very tense in North Korea, but Japan is not making any special preparations in response to that."
But Mr Ishiba's warning pushes the constitutional restraint to the limit, and sends a clear message to North Korea that Japan does not intend to be a passive target.
As the crisis over North Korea's nuclear program worsens, Pyongyang has issued increasingly strident warnings that it is prepared to strike against United States forces, and Washington's allies, in the region. Japan, a chief ally, is well within missile range.
It was not clear exactly what form a Japanese strike would take. Tokyo has substantial and well-equipped forces, including Aegis destroyers, but is geared towards self-defence.
In recent weeks, as the threat from North Korea has intensified, there have been suggestions that Tokyo might call on the US to make a first strike should it be threatened.
Mr Ishiba's warning increases tension over North Korea's nuclear program, which was this week referred to the United Nations Security Council. The US reaffirmed yesterday that it will not immediately push for UN sanctions, instead pursuing a diplomatic solution.
Mr Ishiba also gave his strong support to the development with the US of a missile defence shield, part of Washington's push for a national missile defence system for its forces and allies in Asia.
Japan is very vulnerable to missile attack. In 1998, North Korea test-fired a Taepodong-1 missile over Japan which landed in the Pacific. Since then, Tokyo and Washington have been conducting research on a missile defence system.
Mr Ishiba said such a system was a "major option", adding: "Our nation should pursue this." He also foreshadowed a boost to Japan's forces to reduce its reliance on US forces based in the country.
Washington's forces in Japan include 45,000 troops and sections of the Seventh Fleet. Mr Ishiba said there was no such thing as "a free ride in the post-Cold War era".
The North Korean crisis is also certain to help push emergency legislation through the parliament to prepare Japan for an attack. The legislation got bogged down last year, but the Koizumi administration is making a renewed effort to have it passed in the current session.
Mr Ishiba's comments came as the US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific affairs, James Kelly, said he believed the North Korean crisis could prompt Japan to rethink its position as a non-nuclear weapons state.
"Certainly this is a problem that is of a very serious impact on Japan and will cause Japan to rethink all of its positions," he told a House of Representatives committee.
But Mr Kelly - to whom North Korea confessed last September to having a nuclear arms program - said he believed Japan would remain non-nuclear as long as the "US provides a nuclear umbrella".