Japan Orders Military To Strike Any New North Korea Missiles 107
jones_supa (887896) writes "Japan has ordered a destroyer in the Sea of Japan to strike any ballistic missiles that may be launched by North Korea in the coming weeks after Pyongyang fired a Rodong medium-range missile over the sea. Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera issued the order on Thursday, but did not make it public in order to avoid putting a chill on renewed talks between Tokyo and Pyongyang. The Rodong missile fell into the sea after flying 650 km, short of a maximum range thought to be some 1,300 km, which means it could reach Japan. Japanese Aegis destroyers in the Sea of Japan are equipped with advanced radar equipment able to track multiple targets and carry missiles designed to take out targets at the edge of space."
Bad Neighbors (Score:4, Insightful)
Living near North Korea is like living next door to a crazy man who walks outside and blasts away with a semi-auto rifle occasionally. Not aiming at you but just blazing away randomly while jibbering madly.
Sounds good! (Score:5, Insightful)
If North Korea wants to provide Japan with some awesome real-world testing of missile defense systems, then so be it. The data to be gleaned from both successful and unsuccessful missile intercepts is invaluable, and Kim Jong-un is extremely ignorant to give his "enemies" such wonderful opportunities to fine tune their defenses against his small variety of missile assets.
Re:Bad Neighbors (Score:5, Insightful)
Living near North Korea is like living next door to a crazy man who walks outside and blasts away with a semi-auto rifle occasionally. Not aiming at you but just blazing away randomly while jibbering madly.
Yes, but it beats living inside North Korea.
Even if you're one of the few privileged middle class people who lead almost "normal" lives in Pyongyang you still live under the constant threat of ending up in one of the concentration camps, which can happen if someone thinks that you've said or done something that the leader clique doesn't like. Oh and by the way, they'll sometimes throw in your whole family with you, old Testament style. That is the ultimate means of how a totalitarian regime to keep the people that it has enslaved from doing anything to overthrow or reform it. Even if you manage to evade them and escape, they'll still get your family.
Future historians will place tremendous blame on China's government for doing virtually nothing to influence its neighbor and ally to stop the atrocities in the 2000's and 2010's when they easily could have with all their new-found economic and military power.
Throwing a hissy-fit (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Bad Neighbors (Score:3, Insightful)
Future historians will place tremendous blame on China's government for doing virtually nothing to influence its neighbor and ally to stop the atrocities in the 2000's and 2010's when they easily could have with all their new-found economic and military power.
Uh, there are plenty of atrocities going on in China right now [wikipedia.org] so it's absurd to expect the current rulers in China to do anything about atrocities in North Korea. China wishes to have a buffer between its border and capitalist democracy South Korea and the suffering of the North Korean people is of no concern to them (heck, they deport refugees back to NK to a certain death sentence). In addition to being such a buffer, NK is a bargaining chip in all negotiations China has with the US, Japan and SK. China can offer to reign in NK in return for something China wants.
Re:Bad Neighbors (Score:5, Insightful)
Outside of a full military invasion there is not much China can do about NK. The NK hissy fits and temper tantrums hurt China more than they do the US. Do you think China wanted to see the US and it's Asian allies beefing up their missile defense systems? That's exactly what they got when NK was spouting all the BS about launching nuclear attacks against the US and anyone else who happened to be in range.