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Larry Downing / AFP - Getty Images
Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, center, disembarks from his aircraft after arriving at US Yokota air base in Japan on Sunday.
TOKYO -- U.S. and Japanese officials have agreed to put a second defense system in Japan aimed at protecting the country from the threat of a missile attack from North Korea, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Monday.
The exact location of the radar installation has not yet been determined. It will be in the south of the country, U.S. officials said, but not in Okinawa.
Officials stressed that the system would be aimed at protecting the region against the threat from North Korea and is not directed at China.
The U.S. already has similar early warning radar systems on ships in the Asia-Pacific.
This second Japan-based system will allow the U.S. vessels to spread out and cover other parts of the Asia-Pacific region.
Much at stake for US as tensions rise in troubled China seas
Panetta said the new installation would also be effective in protecting the U.S. homeland from a North Korea threat. He spoke during a press conference in Tokyo with the Japanese defense minister, Satoshi Morimoto.
Morimoto said it would not be appropriate at this time to specify a location for the new radar, and said a date for its deployment has not yet been set.
While officials insisted the radar system would not be aimed at China, the decision was sure to raise the ire of Beijing.
More China coverage on our Behind the Wall blog
The radar will "enhance our ability to defend Japan," Panetta said, adding that he would talk to Chinese leaders about the system to assure them that this about protecting the U.S. and the region from North Korea's missile threat.
"We have made these concerns clear to the Chinese," he said. "For that reason ... we believe it is very important to move ahead" with the radar system.
More North Korea coverage from NBCNews.com
North Korea has long been trying to build a nuclear arsenal, has also been working on a ballistic missile which would be able to reach the U.S. mainland. However, its long-range rocket tests have to date all failed.
David Guttenfelder / AP
In this March 9, 2011 photo, a girl plays the piano inside the Changgwang Elementary School in Pyongyang, North Korea. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
Japan has worked closely with the U.S. for several years on missile defense, and has both land- and sea-based missile launchers.
North Korea's ballistic missiles are considered a threat to security in the Asia-Pacific region because of the risk of conflict erupting on the divided and heavily militarized Korean peninsula, and because of the secretive North's nuclear weapons program.
The long-range rockets it is developing have been test-fired over Japan and could potentially reach the U.S.
The North conducted its latest long-range rocket launch in April, defying a U.N. ban. Pyongyang said the launch was intended to send an observation satellite into space but it drew international condemnation as the rocket technology is similar to that used for ballistic missiles.
Elizabeth Dalziel / AP
From work to play, see pictures from inside the secretive country.
The launch was a failure and the rocket disintegrated shortly after takeoff.
Panetta is on his third trip to Asia in 11 months, reflecting the Pentagon's ongoing shift to put more military focus on the Asia-Pacific.
Territorial disputes
The defense chief is urging countries involved in territorial disputes in the region to find a way to peacefully resolve those problems before they spark provocations and violence.
Panetta's visit to Japan also included discussions with Morimoto about the deployment of V-22 Ospreys to the southwestern island of Okinawa. Tens of thousands of people have protested the hybrid aircraft's planned use, saying they are unsafe.
Kcna / AFP - Getty Images
A pictorial look at the North Korean leader through the years
The U.S. had hoped to have the aircraft in place as early as next month, but Morimoto said no specific date has been set on that matter, either.
The Pentagon plans to deploy 12 of the aircraft, which take off and land like a helicopter, but fly like a plane. U.S. officials have assured Japanese leaders the Ospreys are safe.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
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Leave a Comment:
The forces that run this world are slowly moving the pieces into place for a war in the Asia-Pacific theater.
US/Japan/Taiwan'South Korea vs. China/North Korea
They believe this was of resources is good for business and a way to make profit.
- Zeitgeist.
Lord Fox
You just hit the bottom line with your posting.
Yes that is just what all this is all about. Control of ALL NATURAL RESOURCES and the PROFIT from them. Look a little further under the rug and find that the middle east is the same story.
Oh sure. A severing of our most valuable trade routes and total disruption of the global supply chain is REAL good for business. And if it escalates into nuclear war, even better! There will be an awful lot of rebuilding to do after all our major cities are reduced to smoking craters and the very air turns toxic. Lots of money to be made there.
Use your head. The world is neither as simple nor volatile as you think.
SF accountant if the bombs start dropping I hope some one holds your head out the window and shows you how simple the world can be and how volatile bomb fragments can be. LOL
You need to use your head and know that China is not your friend and trading with the guy who might just blow your family up is not a good business Model.
LOL
Obviously you have never lived in Asia. I have over a 20 year span. This is not about us grabbing resources. Had that been the case, we could have done it long ago. It is about protecting our allies in the Pacific, the free trade and seas routes that benefit us all, US included. There is increasing agression by a couple of countries who believe they can roll in and claim waters and land that by law belong to smaller nations because THEY want the resouces and are bigger or have leaders who care little for the starving people in their own country, let alone anyone else. They want to be a big economy and have most favored status, but still act like the schoolyard bully when they don't get their way.
Oh no China is supposed to be our friend. Let them level eachother off the face of the earth. The middle east can go to hell too. Look at all the jobs that we could hve in the states.
...I doubt even Prez-0 is dumb enough to piss off 1.2 billion Chinese.
Our deployment last year of an air wing in Australia was concern for China's growing appetite for resources and Australia having vast amounts. It like todays announcement stated it had nothing to do with the Chinese but if not them who? One of Tom Clancy's novels was based on an attack by China to capture the vast oil and natural resources by invading siberia.
One thing is certain, there are darker days ahead no matter which side of the world one looks at.And the United States is walking through a minefield, having helped plant many of those weapons ourselves from previous choices in the past.
Nicely stated, Windancersong.
I like the garden metaphor.
We are indeed heading into darker days.
Very true, Thats one reason, we can't ignore these other countries. We've stirred up too much trouble and we have to protect our (selves) interests.
So a few days after China sends "surveillance" ships into Japanese territorial waters the U.S. figures out a way to do the same thing. This chess match is fooling nobody and is very dangerous.
@Mic: Yeah, somewhat scary. But we and the Soviets did it for decades without sarting a war between us.
Believe it or not, but there is the protocal of comprimie in these "war games". I spy on you, you spy on me. I aim at you, you am at me. Again, the cold war; there were relatively few hot incidents when on consders the potential for them. 0when there is an incident, cooler heads prevail, we didn't go to war against the USSR after they sho down a U2.
Essentially, it's called readiness, and both recognize the other has a right to it. The bellicose rhetoric we read in the newpapers and hear on television is aimed not at the other country so much as it is aimed at the people of the country from which it came. The one "violated" must appear violated, yet strong.
Summarily, China and America will not go to war because one countyr shoots down the other country's airplane, there is not so much at stake with such an incident as to lead to war.
Besides that, almost nobody in China or America WANTS a war with the other. What would be the point?
I hope the troops don't go over and get a buch of these women pregnant so they will get a green card. Vietnam, Phillpines, etc. That makes me sick to my stomach. How do we go to these other countries blow them up and then the guys end up marrying these animals and bringing them here. It should be against the law.
The games leaders play. Without China's backing, North Korea would be part of South Korea - and far better off then then are.
You have to understand the mindset of the average North Korean.
There is almost zero descent against the supreme leader.
They don't want to be anything but North Korea and they also harbor almost complete hatred of anything western.
There's more to it than just that, Jeff.
North Korean civilians are also kept almost completely ignorant of the outside world. Although they know they're supposed to hate the West, they don't even really know what that means. All they know is that they live in abject, tightly controlled poverty, and the government seems to have all the resources. Without any real possibility of revolution, they have to listen to and absorb all the poison that the regime spews at them just to survive.
So we have to go and save them too?
Looks like China has got yet more problems.
Japan is the real sleeping tiger of Asia since 1945. Japan had ruled most of East Asia including China and Korea for years before 1945. China has more soldiers, tanks, ships and planes, but Chinese were coward. A few hundred thousand Japaneses had beaten ten million plus Chinese soldiers (Communist and Nationalist combined) in the 1940s!!! Their weapons are cheap copy of Russia weapons and of such poor quality that no other country buy them except their own "people army" which was good enough to run over their students at the Red Square and the unarmed Tibetans!!! Do you ever see a China planes or ship at an international show?
Japan can be compared to the US before Pear Harbor. Once the people of Japan is upset enough to change their constitution (after a few Japan war ships were sunk), Japan can produce more tanks, ships and planes, and even nuclear bombs than China in 2-3 years.
I am sure the coward and stupid Chinese will cool off; otherwise, history will repeat itself and communist China will be begging capitalist America to save them from the Imperial Japan one more time!!!
V. Nugent, You're funny
Yeah, that isn't happening. Japan's national culture is fairly pacificistic now. We literally bombed the warrior culture out of them. And it's not like China wants to start up a war with Japan, who is a lucrative trade partner and wouldn't respond well to being assimilated.
History will repeat itself your seeing the beginning of it now...Not just in China either
Right now America is in Desperate need of a leader. Please help us
If you wait and hope for leadership you're bound to be disappointed.
Work with what you have and do the best you can. Be your own leader.
simple solution, give the north Koreans these aircraft and tell em they are speacil ops planes made for flying / hovering over and protecting missile sites.....at the rate this P.O.S. aircraft fails it shouldn't be long before the NK has no missile sites left........problem solved
Another reason for banning Medical Marijuana
As long as government is in control of education there will be great thinkers like IA.ScooterTramp -
IaScooterTramp: Are you comments always intentionally this stupid or do they come by accident?
IaScooterTramp: Are you comments always intentionally this stupid or do they come by accident?
We Have Had Enough? No "n"
We run massive trade deficits each year with Japan. In return they lend us billions each year (to eventually be paid back, with interest, by our children). Can someone explain to me why we are still spending billions a year defending them? Shouldn't they be paying us for this expensive and dangerous mission?
@biff: It is a good question, but it requires a complex answer. We could start with the fact that after WWII we wrote the Japanese constitution for them. In that constitution, we placed limits on the armed forces leaving them capable only of defense.
Our bases there are for our regional interests as much as for Japanese defense. Our Defense and Economic Cooperation Agreement (DECA) is geared toward the joint defense of Japan and as a launch pad for our military operations in the region should that be necessary.
All of this transpired after WWII and during the Cold War, and at a time when we could largely afford such an enormous cash outlay for defense, and at a time when the media said virtually nothing about defense spending.
Well, economies have changed, our economy is hurting and we question why and how defense dollars are spent - fair enough. Though economies have changes, the world remains a dangerous place. Our defense arrangement with Japan is the quintessential example of the vagaries of global politics.
The US was the one that wrote Japan's constitution that they can't have a military. Then it was signed by the victors of WWII: US, Great Britain, France, Soviet Union and China; the same five countries that currently hold the permanent seats in the UN.
In order for Japan to re-militarize again, Japan's constitution has to be repealed to specifically state that it can militarize again. And in order to do that, it needs agreement from all five powers to do so. The US, UK, and France has no problem with this idea. China and Russia however, in their best interests, would rather keep Japan without a military. It's obvious; the Russians knows it's illegally occupying Japanese islands in the Kurils, China knows they have no substantial claim to the Senkaku Islands, but in their best interests, they'd rather keep Japan gun-less. Besides, Japan has the technological capability of producing nuclear weapons within six months and China and Russia are practically Japan's neighbors, they do not want that.
So if you want someone to blame, blame the US who was shortsighted to realize that the constitution that they wrote for Japan back in 1945 is coming back to bite our own butt today.
Actually, the Japanese Constitution can be amended at any time, given a two-thirds vote in both houses of the Diet, followed by a simple-majority referendum.
In fact, there was an attempt in 2007 to amend the Japanese constitution to make it easier for Japanese Self-Defense Forces to operate overseas.
Thats what we need to do with the 200 plus year old crap we have. Freedom of religion my ass. Back then they weren't worried about a bunch of muslims. They just had to deal with some amish, quakers, native Indians, etc, not the trash thats coming into the country now, with passports stapmped by us. Thanks alot President
Mr. Obama has offered another apology and has asked for cooperation, that should do it !!!
Late news: Obama is going into Walter Reed hospital for a spine transplant, to upgrade for more stiffness. Rumor is it that the donor will be a Pacific jellyfish.....
While in the hospital, he could always call Hollande and ask the French to surrender for us...
Mike, I think the situation has deteriorated too much for an apology to be of any help.
No, I think this calls for another Beer Summit.
Proof of the Pivot. As Obama clearly is abandoning the Middle East to Islam, he beefs up and refocuses on the Pacific. Kudos to Obama for being very honest.
Biden/Obama 2012
If I were the Japanese, I sure as hell wouldn't believe Obama about his defense shield. He can't even protect American embassies.
Ah yes, more billions being spent in the name of WAR!! Not to mention the Caldron of terror called the Middle East and Iran which will be attacked by the US on behalf of Israel by Christmas of this year no matter who becomes President. Only a fool cannot see the path that the world is on, war, war and more war is all I see down the line.
The greed of the World's Elite has been driving hundreds of millions of people into Depression. The anger, frustration, and sense of self-survival combined can only result in mass retaliation against against their corrupt, oppressing enablers...governments. This is taking place right now across the World.
Corrupted Governments are losing control over their Citizens. Throughout History their most successful tool to control populations has been a version of the old ploy, 'divide and conquer', propaganda campaigns to pit members of a Society against each other and/or other Societies using orchestrated events in order to shift fault away from themselves, and regain control.
The ultimate act is for enablers to provoke war to crystalize public opinion and direct its anger against others.
This is what I think is in progress, spearheaded by the Federal government of the United States, and funded by their financial Masters in the banking Cartels.
The mindless masses of man do not bode well for survival of the species.
We have Ospreys based here at kirtland air force base. Other than sounding weird, seem to be perfectly safe.
As some have pointed out here.. This move is protection against China. I for one think its time for Japan to be armed to the teeth. There is no way on this earth that China should feel that Japan is a pushover.
Time to let Japan up from its post WW2 weakness..
Too bad China and Russia will never let that happen.
In order for Japan to militarize again, their constitution has to be re-written. And who wrote Japan's constitution? The victors of WWII: US, UK, France, Russia, and China. And these five hold the permanent seats in the UN.
You need all five to agree that Japan can militarize again. 3 out 5 (US, UK, France) ain't enough. The only way China and Russia will ever agree to let Japan militarize, will be the time when unfriendly aliens threaten Earth and mankind as a whole. :p
Should've been a majority, not unanimous.
I doubt a nation, especially one with a rich history and sense of pride and honor, will worry or consider whether other countries (China, Russia) will "agree" to their ability to defend themselves or arm themselves as they best see fit.
Regardless of a 'constitution' imposed years ago under defeat of war, matters of national security (theirs) will and should over ride this obsolete reasoning that restricts a nation, a people, from self determination.
For those who would raise What the Japanese did before and during World War II, they, we, and the world are all different.
I wonder if the new radar can be equipped to take high-res pictures of incoming missiles exploding or spiralling out of control after being launched. We can make a blooper reel!
This is always happening, US provoking crises, letting Japan provoke, letting eastern Eupeaning countries Opening countries provoke, letting Israel provoke, no wonder we in such a mess. And we of cause support
those moves. Japan above it one example.
And who pays for all this???????????????????????????
The cheapest way for Japan to defend itself against any attacks from N. Korea is to go into their laboratory and begin to thaw out all of Godzilla's frozen eggs. Then they can place each unthawed Godzilla around the perimeter of their island.
Heres a thought ;How about the US and Japan keep their mouths shut and NOT anounce their every move. Ever hear of the element of surprise?
Critical times hard to deal with, will be here.
Wont china get pissed off? America giving weapons to Japan, when China and Japan are on a brink of war.