"LandepNews"
Japanese Self-Defense System
The rocket is expected to fly over Japan’s western territory after it is launched by the NKoreans sometime between April 13 and 14. Earlier this week, the Japanese newspaper Shimbun published the information that the NKorean scientists have already fueled the rocket that is supposed to be fired in April.
The news placed South Korean and Japanese military on alert, both countries pledging to shoot it down if it passed over their territories. According to the trajectory presented by the NKorean leadership, the first stage of the rocket would sink somewhere in the sea between Korea and China, and the next stage would fall into the waters near the Philippines.
The South Korean and Japanese authorities fear that the launch could fail, or that a stage of the rocket that carries it could fall and destroy and or property, or even endanger lives.
The Japanese defense ministry announced that Japan would deploy destroyers equipped with Aegis missile defense systems to the Pacific and East China Sea, and mobile Patriot missile launchers to the island of Okinawa.
An interceptor missile unit will be deployed in Tokyo, even though the capital is far away from the area where the rocket is expected to fly. The destroyers would serve as first line of defense, while land-based Patriot missiles would be backup systems. Japan has never tested its interceptor missiles in real-world situation.
Japan has threatened the NKorean authorities with intercepting the rocket in 2009, when the Communist regime also launched a satellite into orbit. On that occasion, Japan did not follow through.
The satellite launch came as a huge turnaround in the NKorean stance after the regime in Pyongyang had manifested its openness toward discussing the nuclear program of the country. In February, NKorea went as far as to impose a moratorium on nuclear activity and even to allow international inspections to it.
NKorea says that the satellite has nothing to do with the nuclear program, and asserts that it is a satellite that must scan the natural resources of the country, transmit weather data and chart the forest of NKorea. They also say that its launching now is independent from any nuclear talks and has to do with the 100th anniversary of the founder of the republic, Kim Il-sung, the father of the deceased Kim Jong-il, and grandfather of the incumbent leader Kim Jong-eun. It is also meant to build the aura around the head of the new leader, who took office a few months ago and is very young and probably very inexperienced.
The United States and the other countries in the zone did not believe the explanations of the leaders in Pyongyang, and demanded that the operation be stopped, warning that otherwise sanctions would be applied.
America fears that the NKoreans would use the launch of the satellite as a pretext to test new nuclear weapons. The same fear was expressed in 2009, when the United Nations imposed sanctions on the regime, which in turn led to the testing of nuclear weapons.
The United States raised the question during the meeting in Seoul, on the occasion of the summit on denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. Barack Obama warned NKorea that moving on would put in danger the food program the United States were going to offer the regime.
In the meantime, the food program has already been stopped by the United States. It had been agreed on when the NKorean and American delegations met to discuss the possibility to resume the six-party negotiations on Korean nuclear file.
The negotiations were launched last year by the former NKorean president and were promising. NKorea is going through a food shortage and is using the nuclear program as a leverage to alleviate the situation in the country.
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