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Threat from China and North Korea: Japan wants to massively upgrade

2022-12-16T09:48:27.822Z


North Korea's missile and nuclear weapons program, China's growing thirst for power: the government in Tokyo is reacting to the threat situation in the Pacific region and wants to acquire weapons for a possible counter-attack.


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Japanese Navy on maneuvers in November

Photo:

STR / AFP

In view of the threat posed by North Korea's missile and nuclear weapons program and China's growing thirst for power, Japan wants to upgrade massively.

In a clear departure from the security policy, which has so far been exclusively focused on defense, the US ally wants to be able to eliminate enemy missile positions in the future.

This is what the new national security strategy of the government of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida envisages, as reported by the Japanese media on Friday.

The defense budget is to be doubled in the next few years.

With the revised security doctrine expected this Friday, Japan could disable enemy missile positions before the missiles are fired, regardless of its pacifist post-war constitution.

To this end, Japan wants to acquire weapons for the »counterstrike«.

According to earlier reports, Japan is also considering purchasing cruise missiles from its protecting power, the United States.

Japan increasingly sees China's rearmament, missile tests and North Korea's nuclear program as a threat.

The government sees the fact that the country wants to put itself in a position to disable missile positions on enemy territory in an emergency as an act of self-defense and therefore in line with the pacifist post-war constitution.

Japan does not want to become a military power, it said.

According to the Japanese news agency Kyodo, the national security strategy, revised for the first time since 2013, should state that a missile defense shield alone is no longer sufficient to deal with the "significant reinforcement" of the missile arsenals of countries like China and North Korea.

North Korea is testing solid-fuel missile technology

Meanwhile, North Korea says it is developing solid fuel technology for its missile program.

According to the state news agency KCNA, quoted by the South Korean media, the country, which is largely isolated internationally, has tested a solid fuel engine with high thrust.

The test represents the "guarantee for the development of another new type of strategic weapon system," it said.

According to the South Korean news agency Yonhap, experts suspect that the North wants to use the engine test to advance the technologies for the development of a new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) with solid fuel.

Solid-fuel rockets can be rolled out of a hangar or tunnel ready for launch and do not need to be refueled – greatly reducing the time for timely detection of the rockets by satellites.

The conflict on the Korean peninsula has become significantly more explosive in recent months.

North Korea's military has been firing ballistic missiles at increased frequency and has also intensified its rhetoric against the Seoul government.

Some experts suspect that North Korea could soon carry out another nuclear test.

UN resolutions prohibit the country from carrying out nuclear tests and testing ballistic missiles, which, depending on the design, can be equipped with nuclear warheads.

mkl/dpa

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2022-12-16

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