This just in....
http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/asiapcf/east/02/13/nkorea.nuclear/index.html
TOKYO, Japan -- Japan has warned it would attack North Korea if it had evidence Pyongyang was preparing to launch ballistic missiles, Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba has said.
Ishiba's statement is expected to send shockwaves across East Asia, and marks a dramatic escalation in the crisis over North Korea's nuclear program.
"It is too late if [a missile] flies towards Japan," Ishiba told Reuters in an interview on Thursday.
"Our nation will use military force as a self-defense measure if [North Korea] started to resort to arms against Japan," he said, adding that Japan could regard the process of injecting fuel into a missile as the start of military attack.
http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/asiapcf/east/02/13/nkorea.nuclear/index.html
TOKYO, Japan -- Japan has warned it would attack North Korea if it had evidence Pyongyang was preparing to launch ballistic missiles, Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba has said.
Ishiba's statement is expected to send shockwaves across East Asia, and marks a dramatic escalation in the crisis over North Korea's nuclear program.
"It is too late if [a missile] flies towards Japan," Ishiba told Reuters in an interview on Thursday.
"Our nation will use military force as a self-defense measure if [North Korea] started to resort to arms against Japan," he said, adding that Japan could regard the process of injecting fuel into a missile as the start of military attack.
