Japan warns that it will attack if North Korea aims
missile
By David McNeill in Tokyo
15 September 2003
Japan's Defence Minister has stressed his country's right to strike
North Korean missile sites if an attack is thought imminent.
In an exclusive interview, Shigeru Ishiba told The Independent:
"The Japanese constitution permits my position. Attacking North
Korea after a missile attack on Japan is too late. If North Korea
orders its military to send a missile to attack Japan and the
missile is raised to vertical in preparation for launch, then Japan
will assume that an attack has begun and has the right to attack
that particular missile launch site. What else can the missile be
used for but to attack us?"
Intelligence officials estimate that North Korea has at least 100
Rodong ballistic missiles capable of striking Japan.
Mr Ishiba said: "The threat from North Korea, however, is not just
aimed at Japan and the US, it's a problem for the whole world." He
insisted his position was a defensive one. The tension was the
fault of Pyongyang, he said, for "continuing to develop weapons in
violation of their promises. We're just defending ourselves."
Japan is planning to develop a new type of radar to improve its
ability to monitor North Korea's missile development, the Kyodo
news agency reported yesterday.
The hawkish Mr Ishiba, who has earned a reputation for pushing the
limits of Japan's debate on defence since taking office almost a
year ago, has made clear he favours a much tougher stance than his
predecessors toward Japan's Stalinist neighbour.
He believes that President George Bush's strategy is closer to his
own approach, than the strategy of Bill Clinton. "Clinton's policy
toward North Korea was based on two false premises: one, that
Pyongyang would keep its promises [regarding the 1994 agreement to
abandon its nuclear programme]; and two, that North Korea would
collapse," he said.
"North Korea neither kept its promises nor collapsed. We are now
faced with the consequences."
Earlier this year Mr Ishiba sparked a huge row when he told
parliament that it was "worth considering" whether Japan should
have an offensive capability, raising the possibility of radical
change to its 50-year-old pacifist constitution, which renounces
war "for ever". The prospect of a newly aggressive Japan, which
already boasts annual military expenditure of almost £25bn - 25 per
cent larger than Britain's - worries its neighbours, who have
bitter memories of the Second World War.
Mr Ishiba's statements are another sign that Japan is slowly but
inexorably moving away from a defence posture that many
conservatives view as outdated in the aftermath of the Cold War. A
number of senior politicians have recently floated the idea of
Japan developing its own nuclear weapons, and in June, a bipartisan
defence group of 103 junior politicians called for the government
to change its defence-only policy to allow for a "minimum" level of
offensive capability to attack an enemy. Under recent legislation,
Japanese troops can be sent to Iraq to offer medical and
reconstruction assistance, in violation, opponents say, of the
constitution.
The Prime Minister, Junichiro Koizumi said yesterday that he wanted
permanent changes to Article 9 - the section that renounces Japan's
right to wage war - which would give the government authority to
contribute troops to any international peacekeeping operations. The
attack on the Baghdad offices of the UN delayed the dispatch of
Japanese troops but Mr Ishiba insisted they would go "when we can
ensure their safety". He said: "People are afraid of Japanese
troops being killed but war is not a tea party."
