NHK News
April 2, 2012
The deployment of Japanese Self-Defense Force troops around the country continues ahead of North Korea’s planned rocket launch.
A transport ship carrying a PAC-3 missile defense unit left a Maritime Self-Defense Force base in Hiroshima, western Japan, on Monday for Okinawa’s Ishigaki Island.
A destroyer equipped with the advanced Aegis air defense system left the same base, shortly after arriving to pick up personnel. It had left Yokosuka, near Tokyo, 2 days earlier.
A civilian ship carrying another PAC-3 unit arrived at a port in the southwestern prefecture of Kagoshima from central Japan. After picking up ground troops, it departed for Okinawa.
The Defense Ministry plans to deploy PAC-3 missile defense units in 7 locations in Okinawa and the Tokyo metropolitan area. It also plans to send 3 Aegis-equipped destroyers to the Sea of Japan and the East China Sea.
This is in line with an order from the Defense Minister to intercept the North Korean rocket or any debris if they appear likely to fall on Japanese territory.
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