North Korea, Japan | featured news

... Though it remains a highly unlikely scenario, Japanese officials have long feared that if North Korea ever decides to play its nuclear card it has not only the means but several potential motives for launching an attack on Tokyo or major U.S. military installations on Japan's main island. And while a conventional missile attack is far more likely, Tokyo is taking North Korea's nuclear rhetoric seriously.

North Korea has plenty of military firepower even if its threat this week of a pre-emptive nuclear strike on the United States is a hollow one, with South Korea most at risk from the isolated regime's artillery and rockets.

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Monday that U.S. and Japanese officials have agreed to put a second missile defense system in Japan... While officials insisted the radar system would not be aimed at China, the decision was sure to raise the ire of Beijing.

Washington has urged the governments in Tokyo and Seoul to increase cooperation. But the pact triggered an uproar in South Korea, where resentment of Japan’s early 20th-century colonization remains raw and the public regards any sign of Japan’s growing military role with deep suspicion.

A treaty between South Korea and Japan will encourage the sharing of military data on their common concerns: North Korea’s threats and China’s military expansion.

The foreign ministers of the United States, Japan and South Korea are expected to meet in Washington on Monday to discuss North Korea and other issues, U.S. officials said on Wednesday.

The leaders of China, Japan and South Korea kicked off a summit in Beijing on Saturday expected to focus on bringing North Korea back to nuclear disarmament talks and building regional trust. The gathering is the second leg of new Japanese ...

North Korea threatened Saturday to shoot down any Japanese planes that intrude into its airspace, accusing Tokyo of spying near one of its missile launch sites.

Japan will call an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council to discuss a possible response if North Korea launches a long-range rocket in the coming days, Japan's U.N. envoy said on Thursday.

North Korea is preparing to launch a close- to mid-range ballistic missile separately from the long-range missile that Pyongyang has said it will launch next month, the Sankei Japanese daily reported on Sunday.