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Japan ready for N. Korea attack
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. (Japan stance shocks Asia) Japan has become increasingly worried about any missile threat posed to it from North Korea. In the past week it has been warned the North may up the ante in the crisis by resuming testing of missiles that could be sent over Japan. Tokyo has called on North Korea to reopen dialogue with the U.N. nuclear watchdog, a move that would push it towards a "rapid and verifiable dismantling of its nuclear weapons program," a foreign ministry statement said. Meanwhile, Russia and China have both criticized the decision by the International Atomic Energy Agency to refer up to the Security Council, indicating they fear the move may inflame the crisis. The IAEA referred the issue to the Security Council after the 35-nation executive board of the agency voted to cite Pyongyang for being in breach of U.N. nuclear safeguards. Although China said it backed the IAEA decision to report North Korea's "non-compliance" with atomic safeguards, Beijing doesn't want the Council to become involved in attempts to settle the crisis. "We feel on this issue that we should pay attention not to make it more complicated. Therefore, we feel at the current stage that the Security Council should not be involved in the settlement of the issue," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said on Thursday. The U.S. too appears reluctant for any tough stance from the Council, with CNN learning Washington plans to urge it to condemn Pyongyang's nuclear program rather than hit North Korea with sanctions. At the same time, South Korea backed the IAEA's decision and urged the North to seize the opportunity to diplomatically resolve the situation. Pyongyang, which has said that any sanctions imposed on it by the United Nations would effectively be a declaration of war, has so far remained silent on the U.N. move. In the latest developments:
• U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said the Bush administration would push for regional diplomacy in an attempt to resolve the crisis. (Full story) • North Korea is a danger to the world, not just Northeast Asia because of its nuclear weapons and missile programs and its record of selling missile technology to other countries, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said. (Full story) • Still in the U.S., CIA Director George Tenet says North Korea probably has what he called "one or two plutonium-based devices." He also says the North's missiles also have the ability to hit the West Coast of the United States. (Full story) Tensions have mounted on the Korean peninsula since last October when the United States said North Korea admitted to secretly pursuing a nuclear weapons program in violation of a 1994 deal. Pyongyang, which denies the U.S. claim, responded by backing out of a nuclear non-proliferation treaty earlier this year, kicking out U.N. nuclear monitors and restarting a mothballed nuclear power plant in a move it says will compensate for an energy shortfall. The Associated Press & Reuters contributed to this report.
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