Japan's milita­ry policy has been restri­cted to self-defenc­e and relies heavil­y on the USTOKYO: Japan plans to purchase offensive air-to-surface missiles to counter North Korea’s rising military threat, its defence minister said Friday, a move likely to stir debate over its decades-long pacifist policy. Itsunori Onodera said the ministry intends to request a special budget for the fiscal year starting April 2018 to purchase long-range cruise missiles deployed on fighter jets. According to local media, the ministry plans to buy JASSM and LRASM long-range, air-to-ground missiles with a range of some 900 kilometres (560 miles) from US firms. It also plans to buy Joint Strike Missiles with a range of some 500 kilometres from Norway’s Kongsberg Defence and Aerospace, news reports said. Earlier this week, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told parliament that North Korea’s missile tests were an “imminent threat” to Japan and talking to the reclusive state was meaningless.

Source: The Express Tribune December 08, 2017 06:33 UTC