Japan's cabinet approved a bill on Tuesday that would revise the country's defence laws to allow a swifter response to ballistic missile attacks, a move targetted at the threat posed by North Korea's missile arsenal. The bill would allow the defence minister to order the interception of an incoming missile without first securing cabinet and security council approval as the law now requires.
Military analysts had said Tokyo would be unable to respond to a ballistic missile launch by neighbouring North Korea - which shocked Japan in 1998 by firing a ballistic missile over the country - if it used the approval procedure. It would take only around 10 minutes for such a missile to hit Japan.
"I don't think it is appropriate to name a specific country," top government spokesman Hiroyuki Hosoda told a news conference.
"But an increasing number of countries have deployed ballistic missiles and if we know one is heading to our country, we need to deal with it urgently."
Following the cabinet's approval, the bill is expected to be submitted to the current parliamentary session.
In response to the North's 1998 launch, Tokyo decided in 2003 to buy a missile defence system from the United States.
However, the system will not be fully deployed until 2010, Hosoda said. Japan is also carrying out joint research on a next-generation missile shield with Washington.
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