Japan Threatens To Shoot Down North Korea Rocket

Japan and Russian Federation both condemned North Korea for what they see as its blatant disregard of worldwide law. They agreed to urge North Korea to show restraint. A visitor takes photos of an illuminated model of a globe while others watch at the Sci-Tech Complex in Pyongyang, North Korea Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2016.

Analysts are concerned that satellite launches would enable North Korea to test the technology needed to initiate a long-range nuclear strike.

Experts suggest the launch may be an attempt by North Korea to improve rocket accuracy, and develop the ability to re-enter the atmosphere with a payload.

The timing couldn’t have appeared worse.

However, Lu also made clear that China doesn’t place all the blame for North Korea’s decisions on Pyongyang itself. In diplomatic terms, it was yet another sign of…

“We have defenses ready to deal with all threats, but in view of the announcement I have put the Self Defense Force’s Aegis destroyers and our PAC-3 units on alert and issued an order to shoot down any ballistic missile threat,”Japan’s defense minister, Gen Nakatani, told media briefing”.

North Korea has notified three United Nations agencies that it plans to launch an earth observation satellite as early as Monday (Feb 8), just weeks after carrying out its fourth nuclear test. If North Korea’s past patterns are any clue, angry warnings by Seoul, Washington and their allies probably won’t dissuade a coming launch.

“We strongly warn that the North will pay a severe price … if it goes ahead with the long-range missile launch plan”. The North Korean government has recently tested a new model of a rocket much larger than previous Unha-3 vehicles, dubbed the Unha-9.

Activities at the site are “similar to that seen prior to a previous launch in 2012” and are “suggestive of launch preparations”, according to an update from the Johns Hopkins University’s 38North project.

The degree of sanctions are thought to have been part of discussions, but some say, stopping Pyongyang from its satellite launch, what many may have been hoping for, was not Wu Dawei’s priority.

North Korea also conducted its fourth nuclear bomb test on 6 January.

South Korean President Park Geun-Hye on Thursday said a planned rocket launch by North Korea could “never be tolerated”, as her defence ministry vowed to shoot down any missile that threatened its territory.

Ban, a former South Korean foreign minister, said the announcement “will further aggravate the profound concerns that the worldwide community already has in the wake of the recent nuclear test”, the spokesman said.

One other disturbing detail comes from the Associated Press, which notes that predicting launches by the rogue communist nation has become more hard due to “the increasingly sophisticated concealing measures North Korea has been developing over the past several years”. The rocket’s first and second stages are supposed to fall off the coast of South Korea and the Philippines, respectively.

Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, called the possible launch a “serious provocation”, adding that he would work with the US and South Korea to demand that Pyongyang abandon the planned launch.

Japanese defense officials have indicated plan to shoot down any North Korean territory that may land in its territory.