Tag: Japan

Here is the latest threat from North Korea in response to the recent United Nations sanctions.  This type bombastic threat leads me to believe they may do yet another provocation.  Since they are specifically mentioning Japan in this statement could they be setting conditions for another missile firing over the country?  I guess we will see:

A North Korean state agency threatened on Thursday to use nuclear weapons to “sink” Japan and reduce the United States to “ashes and darkness” for supporting a U.N. Security Council resolution and sanctions over its latest nuclear test.

The Korea Asia-Pacific Peace Committee, which handles the North’s external ties and propaganda, also called for the breakup of the Security Council, which it called “a tool of evil” made up of “money-bribed” countries that move at the order of the United States.

“The four islands of the archipelago should be sunken into the sea by the nuclear bomb of Juche. Japan is no longer needed to exist near us,” the committee said in a statement carried by the North’s official KCNA news agency.

Juche is the North’s ruling ideology that mixes Marxism and an extreme form of go-it-alone nationalism preached by state founder Kim Il Sung, the grandfather of the current leader, Kim Jong Un.  [Reuters]

You can read more at the link.

Oops:

A Camp Hansen Marine was arrested last week after a bullet was found in his bag at Naha Airport, Japanese police said.

Cpl. Aaron Swicegood, 25, was taken into custody at a domestic terminal security checkpoint at approximately 9:20 a.m. Friday after a live pistol round was found in his rucksack, a Tamashiro police spokesman said. Swicegood was traveling to Tokyo on his way to Los Angeles.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link, but this is a good reminder to make sure to check every small pocket in your bags for contraband to avoid an incident like this.

Japanese politician & former pro wrestler Antonio Inoki heading to Pyongyang Sep. 7 (he's a frequent visitor) https://t.co/q2yAf04WU6

— Alastair Gale (@AlastairGale) September 4, 2017

South Korean dancer, Kim Sun-ja, performs “jinhonmu,” a dance for the repose of the deceased, during a memorial service at Yokoamicho Park in Tokyo on Sept. 1, 2017, to pay tribute to Koreans massacred by Japanese in the aftermath of the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake in Tokyo and its vicinity. A monument at the park says up to 6,000 Koreans were killed. The massacre began when the Japanese government spread rumors of a planned riot by Koreans in a scheme to divert public attention from social unrest. (Yonhap)

With the ever increasing threat from North Korea the Japanese government may be forced into pursuing some kind of pre-emptive strike capability:

Japan is debating whether to develop a limited pre-emptive strike capability and buy cruise missiles — ideas that were anathema in the pacifist country before the North Korea missile threat.

With revisions to Japan’s defense plans underway, ruling party hawks are accelerating the moves, and some defense experts say Japan should at least consider them.

After being on the backburner in the ruling party for decades, a possibility of pre-emptive strike was formally proposed to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe by his party’s missile defense panel in March, prompting parliamentary debate, though somewhat lost steam as Abe apparently avoided the divisive topic after seeing support ratings for his scandal-laden government plunge.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read the rest at the link, but the offensive strike capability they are considering is tomahawk cruise missiles fired from their Aegis destroyers to take out North Korean missiles before they are launched.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un observes the launch of a Hwasong-12 intermediate-range ballistic missile in Pyongyang on Aug. 29, 2017, North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported Aug. 30. The missile flew over Japan and landed in the northern Pacific Ocean. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)

This article is…somethinghttps://t.co/ny8LOfEv7A

— blob in your tea (@noahjussi) August 28, 2017

It looks like the Kim regime wants normalize firing missiles over Japan and use the joint US-ROK military exercises as excuses to do so:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un signaled more missile launches into the Pacific Ocean after a successful test of a Hwasong-12 intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) that flew over Japan, Tuesday, according to Pyongyang’s state media, Wednesday.

The Hwasong-12 flew about 2,700 kilometers over Japan before landing in the Pacific Ocean. This was the first time that North Korea has fired a ballistic missile over Japan.

“The missile firing, which closely resembled actual warfare, is the first step of our military operations in the Pacific and a significant prelude to check the U.S. territory of Guam,” the North’s Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) quoted Kim as saying.

“We need to carry out more ballistic missile tests toward the Pacific, so that we can develop strategic forces more practically.”

His comments showed the North could test-fire missiles toward not only areas around the Korean Peninsula but also those near Japan, Guam and other Pacific regions.

The KCNA said the country chose Aug. 29 for the missile launch to intimidate Japan on the occasion of the 107th anniversary of Japan’s annexation of Korea in 1910.

“We carried out a bold operation, which flabbergasted the brutal Japanese islanders, on bloody Aug. 29, the day when the humiliating treaty of annexation was announced 107 year ago,” the KCNA said.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link, but it is clear the Kim regime feels there will be no repercussions from firing missiles over Japan and thus why this may become the new normal.  I guess we will see if the Kim regime is right about this assumption.

This exercise was unrelated to the recent North Korean missile launch over Japan, but I think it is pretty significant that the Japanese are willing to demonstrate that they can deploy their own Patriot batteries defend a US airbase:

Japan’s air force demonstrated a Patriot missile-defense system at Yokota in western Tokyo Tuesday, just hours after a North Korean missile flew over Hokkaido.

The Japan Air Self-Defense Force is deploying Patriot Advanced Capability-3 surface-to-air systems to several U.S. bases in Japan to test their ability to quickly respond to Pyongyang’s missile threats, a U.S. Forces Japan statement said.

A convoy of trucks carrying PAC-3 components arrived at Yokota, headquarters of USFJ and the 5th Air Force, Tuesday morning. The planned deployment happened soon after North Korea test-fired a missile over Japanese territory, prompting alerts in a dozen prefectures before falling into the ocean east of Hokkaido. It was the latest in a string of missile tests this year, including one that appeared to simulate a nuclear attack on U.S. forces in Japan.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link.

Japan's foreign minister says what others may be thinking: easier for NK to get away with a missile fired over Japan than towards Guam. pic.twitter.com/iAPP3BPWer

— Alastair Gale (@AlastairGale) August 29, 2017