JAPAN/FILE: Tokyo deploys missile defence ahead of North Korea rocket launch

Record ID: 466201

  • Title: JAPAN/FILE: Tokyo deploys missile defence ahead of North Korea rocket launch
  • Date: 7th April 2012
  • Summary: TOKYO, JAPAN (APRIL 7, 2012) (REUTERS) (NIGHTSHOTS) EXTERIOR OF JAPANESE DEFENCE MINISTRY SIGN READING IN JAPANESE "MINISTRY OF DEFENCE" VARIOUS OF TRUCKS CARRYING PATRIOT MISSILE LAUNCHERS ENTERING DEFENCE MINISTRY SOLDIER PREPARING LAUNCHER BEHIND BARBED WIRE FENCE VARIOUS OF FIRING TUBES OF LAUNCHER RISING INTO POSITION SOLDIER OPERATING LAUNCHER VARIOUS OF MISSILE LAUNCHER ROTATING INTO POSITION RADAR TOWER ABOVE DEFENCE MINISTRY SOLDIER STANDING BY LAUNCHER LAUNCHER IN FRONT OF DEFENCE MINISTRY SOLDIER OPENING BARBED WIRE FENCE FOR SUPERIOR OFFICER AND STANDING TO ATTENTION IN FRONT OF LAUNCHER
  • Embargoed: 22nd April 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: At Sea, Japan
  • City:
  • Country: Japan At Sea
  • Topics: Conflict,International Relations,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA192C8G8PG4SJWQIM7HI8Z6L62
  • Story Text: Tokyo geared up for action in the dead of night on Saturday (April 7) as Japan prepares for North Korea's planned rocket launch later this month.
    Last week Japan began deploying Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) ground-based interceptors to islands in the country's southern Okinawa prefecture.
    The deployment of two PAC-3 launchers to central Tokyo, and others to bases around the capital, completes the country's deployment of the land-based interceptor system.
    Japan is also deploying three Aegis radar-equipped destroyers carrying Standard Missile-3 interceptors to the sea between Japan and South Korea and the East China Sea.
    North Korea is expected to launch the rocket some time between 12-16 April in the direction of Japan's southerly Okinawa prefecture and Taiwan.
    Pyongyang says it is merely sending a weather satellite into space, but South Korea and the United States claim it is a disguised ballistic missile test.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
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