Tag Archives: japan

Missile interceptors placed in key locations to defend Tokyo’s 30 million people against possible North Korea attack

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We have missiles deployed inside Tokyo itself now?! Makes me feel so safe.

From various news agencies:

Japan has deployed Patriot missiles in its capital as it readies to defend the 30 million people who live in greater Tokyo from any North Korean attack, officials have said.

Two Patriot Advanced Capability-3 surface-to-air missile launchers were stationed at the defence ministry in Tokyo before dawn, a ministry spokesman said on Monday.

Itsunori Onodera, Japan’s defence minister, said “we are proceeding with measures including deployment of PAC-3 as we are on alert”.

Local reports said batteries would be deployed in another two locations in the greater Tokyo area.

“The government is making utmost efforts to protect our people’s lives and ensure their safety,” Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters Tuesday morning.

“As North Korea keeps making provocative comments, Japan, cooperating with relevant countries, will do what we have to do.

“For the moment, the most important thing is to implement sanctions under the UN Security Council resolutions,” Abe said.

Sea-based missiles

Tokyo’s response thus far to the threats emanating from Pyongyang has been low key and Tuesday’s moves are the most visible yet that it is rattled.PAC-3 batteries will also be installed in the semi-tropical island chain of Okinawa, Onodera told a television programme broadcast Monday.

He said Okinawa was “the place that is most effective in responding to emergencies … so we should deploy the unit in Okinawa on a permanent basis”.

Japan’s armed forces are authorised to shoot down any North Korean missile headed towards its territory, a defence ministry spokesman said Monday.

In addition to the PAC-3s, Aegis destroyers equipped with sea-based interceptor missiles have been deployed in the Sea of Japan (East Sea), the defence official said.

Tokyo’s moves came as North Korea said Monday it was withdrawing all workers and suspending operations at a lucrative joint industrial zone with South Korea, with reports of heightened activity at the North’s nuclear test site and at a missile battery.

North Korea’s bellicose rhetoric has reached fever pitch in recent weeks, with near-daily threats of attacks on US military bases including in Japan and South Korea in response to ongoing South Korea-US military exercises.

‘Verbal’ war

Intelligence reports suggest Pyongyang has readied two mid-range missiles on mobile launchers on its east coast and plans a test-firing before the April 15 birthday of late founding leader Kim Il-Sung.

But Toshimitsu Shigemura, professor of international relations at Waseda University, said Tokyo’s measures were purely precautionary and it was unlikely that Pyongyang would actually target Japan.

“This is a verbal war and it’s not accompanied by actual military actions,” he told AFP news agency.

“Government officials know from satellite images that Pyongyang has not mobilised its troops or weapons on the frontline, except that they moved mobile missile launchers to the east coast.”

He said a mistargeted missile that might end up falling uncontrollably towards Japanese territory was most likely what Tokyo was readying for.

Dealing with North Korea

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The following is from CNN breaking news:

Intercepted communications in recent days indicate that North Korea could be planning to launch a mobile ballistic missile in the coming days or weeks, a U.S. official tells CNN.The news came as South Korean Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin told a parliamentary committee in Seoul that the North has moved a medium-range missile to its east coast for an imminent test firing or military drill. The missile doesn’t appear to be aimed at the U.S. mainland, Kim said, according to the semi-official South Korean news agency Yonhap.

Well, if they are moving medium-range missiles to its east coast then who do you think they are aiming at?

I think the U.S. should (and it would be nice if China assisted) took out the North Korean missiles and nuke plants.

Tohoku Electric abandons planned Fukushima nuclear plant

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Understatement of the year:

“Tohoku Electric President Makoto Kaiwa has said it would be difficult to build a new plant in the radiation evacuation zone.”

SENDAI – Tohoku Electric Power Co. on Thursday dropped its plan to build a new nuclear plant in Fukushima Prefecture.

The utility apparently decided it was impossible to go through with the construction amid strong local opposition following the triple meltdowns at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima No. 1 plant. The site also falls within the fallout evacuation zone. The plan was excluded from the firm’s management plan for fiscal 2013 released later Thursday.

Tohoku Electric had been in the process of acquiring around 150 hectares of land in the town of Namie and in Odaka Ward, Minamisoma, but has faced strong local opposition. Namie is presently deserted, its residents forced to evacuate due to radioactive fallout from Fukushima No. 1.

The planned construction site was flooded with tsunami after the Great East Japan Earthquake, and the area was designated an evacuation zone. It is located some 10 km north of Fukushima No. 1, which is situated in the towns of Okuma and Futaba.

Since the nuclear crisis erupted, Fukushima Prefecture has supported the phaseout of atomic energy, and the municipal assemblies of Namie and Minamisoma have passed resolutions to stop attracting nuclear plants to the area.

The utility has yet to acquire all the land it sought. But in a plan unveiled last March, a reference on when to start construction and operation, previously stated as fiscal 2016 and fiscal 2021, was changed to “undecided.”

Tohoku Electric President Makoto Kaiwa has said it would be difficult to build a new plant in the radiation evacuation zone.