Hokkaido adds missile defence
Tokyo warns island residents to take cover
TOKYO: Japan deployed an additional missile defence system yesterday on its northern island of Hokkaido, days after North Korea launched a missile over the island, sparking emergency warnings to take cover.
“As part of measures to prepare for emergencies, we will today deploy a PAC-3 unit” to a base of the nation’s Ground Self-Defence Force in the southern tip of Hokkaido, Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera told reporters.
The Patriot Advanced Capability-3 system arrived at the base later in the day, a local defence official said.
The move came with tensions on the Korean peninsula are at fever-pitch after Pyongyang carried out its sixth nuclear test and fired two missiles over Japan in less than a month.
North Korea “may take further provocative actions including launching ballistic missiles that would fly over Japan again in the future”, Mr Onodera said, adding that his ministry “would take appropriate measures to protect people’s safety”.
According to local officials, Japan has already deployed the PAC-3 system to another part of Hokkaido.
But defence officials declined to confirm where in Japan other systems were deployed.
North Korea has threatened to “sink” Japan into the sea and said on Saturday it sought military “equilibrium” with archenemy the United States by developing a full nuclear arsenal.
Hawkish Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has said he would “never tolerate” North Korea’s “dangerous provocative action” and has called on the international community to ramp up the pressure on Pyongyang.
The UN Security Council will hold a ministerial-level meeting tomorrow on weapons of mass destruction, focused on sanctions for North Korea.