Japan To North Korea: “We Will Shoot You Down”
Mar 13, 2009 6 Comments ›› Pat Dollard
Japan warns it may shoot down North Korean satellite launcher
• Pyongyang says response would be act of war
• Regional tensions rise over missile launch
by Justin McCurry
Japan today threatened to shoot down a satellite that North Korea plans to launch early next month if it shows any signs of striking its territory.
Tokyo’s warning that it would deploy its multibillion-dollar missile defence system raised tensions in the region after North Korea said that it had identified a potential “danger area” near Japanese territory along the rocket’s flight path.
The regime told the International Maritime Organisation that the missile would be launched during daylight between 4 and 8 April, and that its boosters would fall into the Sea of Japan – about 75 miles (120km) from Japan’s north-west coast – and the Pacific Ocean.
Officials in Tokyo said they reserved the right to destroy any threatening object in mid-flight, despite North Korean warnings that it would consider such a move an act of war.
“Under our law, we can intercept any object if it is falling towards Japan, including any attacks on Japan, for our security,” Takeo Kawamura, the chief cabinet secretary, told reporters.
Despite repeated assurances from Pyongyang that the rocket is a vital part of North Korea’s space programme, other countries in the region suspect the hardware is a Taepodong-2 ballistic missile.
South Korean intelligence has reported a build-up of activity in recent days near the missile’s launch pad at Musudan-ri base on its neighbour’s north-east coast.
Any missile launch, even one intended to put a satellite into orbit, would represent a snub to the US administration, which has repeatedly invited the communist state to return to negotiations over its nuclear weapons programme.
Last month the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, urged the north to cancel the launch, which US officials say would be in violation of a 2006 UN security council resolution.
The South Korean foreign ministry said in a statement: “If North Korea goes ahead with the launch, we believe there will be discussions and a response by the security council on the violation of the resolution.”
The UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, said a missile or satellite launch would “threaten the peace and stability in the region.”
After Japan’s transport ministry ordered airlines and shipping companies operating in the area to take precautionary measures, Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways said they would alter flight paths on several European and other routes.
Speculation has been mounting for weeks that North Korea was about to put its hitherto unreliable missile technology to the test. The regime suffered a setback in 2006 when a Taepodong-2 missile – theoretically capable of reaching Alaska – blew up moments into its flight.
Japan has intensified efforts to protect itself against conventional missile attacks since 1998, when the north test-launched a long-range rocket over its territory without warning.
In response, Japan and the US have jointly developed a ballistic missile defence system that includes interceptor missiles on board ships and Patriot missiles dotted around Tokyo.
But experts believe that a rocket capable of launching a satellite into orbit may be too high to intercept.
SEOUL, South Korea — Japan sharply protested North Korea’s planned satellite launch, warning Friday it could shoot down the rocket after Pyongyang said it would fly over Japan and designated a “danger” zone off the country’s coast.
North Korea has given U.N. agencies coordinates forming two zones where parts of its multiple-stage rocket would fall, unveiling its plan to fire the projectile over Japan toward the Pacific Ocean in the launch set for sometime between April 4-8.
One of the “danger” zones where the rocket’s first stage is expected to fall lies in waters less than 75 miles from Japan’s northwestern shore, according to coordinates released by the International Civil Aviation Organization and the International Maritime Organization on Thursday.
The other zone lies in the middle of the Pacific between Japan and Hawaii.
In Tokyo, Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura told North Korea to abandon the rocket plan and said Japan was ready to defend itself.
“We can legally shoot down one for safety in case an object falls toward Japan,” he said.
Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada said Japan would “deal with anything that is flying toward us. We are preparing for any kind of emergency.”
Japan’s prime minister also expressed anger.
“They can call it a satellite or whatever, but it would be a violation” of a 2006 U.N. Security Council resolution banning Pyongyang from ballistic missile activity, Taro Aso said. “We protest a launch, and strongly demand it be canceled.”
Japan’s Coast Guard and Transport Ministry issued maritime and aviation warnings, urging ships and aircraft to stay away from the affected regions.
South Korea also warned Pyongyang.
“If North Korea carries out the launch, we believe there will be discussions and countermeasures from the Security Council,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement, referring to possible sanctions.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Thursday that a North Korean satellite or missile launch was “undesirable” because it would “threaten the peace and stability in the region.”
Though it is an international norm for countries to provide such specifics as a safety warning ahead of a missile or satellite launch, it was the first time the communist North has done so. It did not issue a warning ahead of its purported satellite launch in 1998 over Japan and a failed 2006 test-flight of a long-range missile.
The North’s notification to the ICAO and IMO underscores the communist regime is intent on pushing ahead with the launch in an attempt to gain greater leverage in negotiations with the United States, analysts say.
“They want to do the launch openly while minimizing what the international community may find fault with,” said Kim Yong-hyun, a professor at Seoul’s Dongguk University. “The launch will earn North Korea a key political asset that would enlarge its negotiating leverage.”
U.S. State Department spokesman Robert Wood called the North’s plan “provocative.”
“We think the North needs to desist, or not carry out this type of provocative act, and sit down … and work on the process of denuclearization of the Korean peninsula,” Wood said.
President Barack Obama “highlighted the risks posed by North Korea’s missile program” during his meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, the White House said in a statement.
Analysts, including Kim, say a rocket launch would increase the stakes and, more importantly, the benefits the impoverished nation might get from negotiations with the U.S. and other countries trying to persuade it to give up its nuclear weapons program.
