Japan Considering Military Strike on North Korea
by John Little on 10/07/2006Tough talk in Japan:
Japan said Monday it was considering whether a pre-emptive strike on the North’s missile bases would violate its constitution, signaling a hardening stance ahead of a possible U.N. Security Council vote on Tokyo’s proposal for sanctions against the regime.Japan was badly rattled by North Korea’s missile tests last week and several government officials openly discussed whether the country ought to take steps to better defend itself, including setting up the legal framework to allow Tokyo to launch a pre-emptive strike against Northern missile sites.
“If we accept that there is no other option to prevent an attack … there is the view that attacking the launch base of the guided missiles is within the constitutional right of self-defense. We need to deepen discussion,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe said.
As cool as this sounds I believe the Japanese may be talking tough to give us some leverage in our negotiations with China. A reinvigorated Japanese military would scare the bejesus out of everyone in the region. There’s also the question of whether Japan is even capable of carrying out such a strike:
Japanese fighter jets and pilots are not capable of carrying out such an attack, a military analyst said.
“Japan’s air force is top class in defending the nation’s airspace, but attacking another country is almost impossible,” said analyst Kazuhisa Ogawa.
“Even if Japan’s planes made it to North Korea, they wouldn’t make it back … it would be an act of suicide,” he said. “Japan has no capacity to wage war.”
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