A Japanese soldier stands watch at Japan Air Self-Defense Force's Chinen base in Nanjo, Okinawa Prefecture, southern Japan, Thursday, April 12, 2012. Japan is on alert for North Korean rocket which is expected to launch sometime between April 12-16. (AP/Kyodo News)
A Japanese soldier stands watch at Japan Air Self-Defense Force's Chinen base in Nanjo, Okinawa Prefecture, southern Japan, Thursday, April 12, 2012. Japan is on alert for North Korean rocket which is expected to launch sometime between April 12-16. (AP/Kyodo News)
Adm. Samuel Locklear, commander of the U.S. Pacific Command, holds an all-hands meeting with sailors aboard the aircraft carrier USS George Washington at Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan, on April 12, 2012. Locklear also met with airmen at Yokota Air Base, where he said the impending North Korean rocket launch is "more of a strategic concern than it is a tactical concern." (Brian H. Abel/U.S. Navy)
Rear Adm. J.R. Haley of Commander Task Force 70, right, introduces Adm. Samuel Locklear, commander of the U.S. Pacific Command, at the start of an all-hands meeting April 12, 2012, with sailors aboard the aircraft carrier USS George Washington at Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan. (Sean P. La Marr/U.S. Navy)
Adm. Samuel Locklear, commander of the U.S. Pacific Command, speaks at an all-hands meeting with sailors aboard the aircraft carrier USS George Washington at Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan, on April 12, 2012. Locklear also met with airmen at nearby Yokota Air Base, where he discussed the impending launch of a North Korean rocket. (Sean P. La Marr/U.S. Navy)
Sailors salute Adm. Samuel Locklear, commander of the U.S. Pacific Command, as he arrives for an all-hands meeting with sailors aboard the aircraft carrier USS George Washington at Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan, on April 12, 2012. (William Pittman/U.S. Navy)
SASEBO NAVAL BASE, Japan — The U.S. military might be keeping mum about any planned response to what appears to be an impending North Korean ballistic missile test, but details of U.S. moves are emerging from allies working with the U.S. and equally concerned about the pending missile launch.
The five-day launch window opened Thursday, but Japan’s Kyodo news service reported that poor weather conditions scuttled any chance of a first-day launch.
U.S. military commands in South Korea and Japan have declined to comment on any possible troop movements, deferring media inquiries to the Pentagon and the White House.
Adm. Samuel Locklear, head of U.S. Pacific Command, said Thursday the U.S. was closely monitoring the pending launch but said the event “was more of a strategic concern than it is a tactical concern.”
After North Korea disclosed last month that it would launch a satellite in the lead-up to celebrations marking the 100th anniversary of the birth of Kim Il Sung, the founder of the communist nation, the U.S. and its Asian allies condemned it as a front for testing Pyongyang’s long-range missile capabilities and a violation of its pledge to suspend nuclear pursuits in exchange for food aid.
Locklear declined to say if the U.S. intended to intercept the North Korean rocket, but Japan has announced plans to shoot it down if it enters Japanese airspace. South Korean defense officials have said they consider the launch to be a “provocation” and are considering possible countermeasures.
In Seoul, about 30 miles from the North Korean border, it was business as usual Thursday at U.S. Army Garrison Yongsan, the military’s largest installation in South Korea. Soldiers said they had been following news of the impending launch on television or the Internet, and while there was some discussion on post about North Korea, it wasn’t dominating conversation.
“People aren’t panicking. People are concerned, but it’s not a panic situation,” said radio operator Staff Sgt. Jason Morris. “A lot of people feel it’s a show, like what North Korea has done in the past.”
The military remained quiet on whether any precautions were being taken at Kunsan Air Base, located on the southwestern coast of the country approximately 105 miles from where the first-stage section of the Unha-3 rocket is projected to fall into the Yellow Sea. The tiny seaside base is home to approximately 2,800 troops and the 8th Fighter Wing.
Japan has been readying its missile defense system, a combination of radars and interceptor missiles coordinated through land, sea, air and space assets, and developed in conjunction with the U.S. after North Korea’s 1998 ballistic missile test.
“Both Japan and U.S. use the same [technology],” said Tetsuo Maeda, a former journalist from Nagasaki Broadcasting Company, author, defense expert and a guest professor at the University of Okinawa. “I think the U.S. has control of the overall initiative, but since this is happening on Japanese grounds, legally, Japan would call the shots.”
Defense experts and Japanese military officials agree that while the U.S. military has the capability to shoot down the rocket or fire upon falling debris, such a scenario is unlikely.
“We don’t discuss ship movements or speculate on any hypotheticals, but we are monitoring the situation very closely with our Japanese counterparts,” U.S. Pacific Command spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Bill Clinton wrote in an emailed response to Stars and Stripes. “Through our combined capabilities, we can sufficiently monitor North Korea’s efforts and warn of unfavorable developments.”
Officials from the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) confirmed that the U.S. Navy — like its Japanese counterpart — has dispatched ships equipped with the Aegis ballistic missile defense system to the region.
The Japanese have four Kongo-class destroyers equipped with Aegis technology, a collection of sensors, computers, software, displays, weapon launchers and weapons that have the ability to track a missile or rocket via satellite and shoot it down using an SM-3 or SM-2 interceptor missile.
In addition to Patriot missile batteries in Tokyo and on the southern island of Okinawa, there are six JMSDF ships deployed in anticipation of the launch to the East China Sea and the Sea of Japan, including three of the four Kongo-class destroyers, JMSDF spokesman Lt. Choji Yoshida said.
Yoshida declined to speculate on how many U.S. Navy ships had deployed ahead of the launch. He said that all of the U.S. Navy and Japanese ships were positioned in a protective posture, prepared to shoot the rocket down if necessary. Despite this, Yoshida said, the U.S. was “mainly gathering information.”
The USS O’Kane, an Aegis-equipped, guided-missile destroyer based out of Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, left Sasebo on Saturday, Navy officials confirmed this week, on its way to a seven-month deployment to the Persian Gulf. According to skipper Cmdr. Michael Ray’s posts on the ship’s Facebook page, the ship “unexpectedly turned north” from the anticipated route and is now “braving the cold weather of Northeast Asia.”
The U.S. military has a host of tracking sites in South Korea and Japan, including the new Air Defense Command at Yokota Air Base, which is jointly operated by the Japanese and U.S. There are also missile tracking and warning sites at Misawa Air Base, Japan, and at Osan Air Base, South Korea, among others. The U.S. military also has the RQ-4 Global Hawk surveillance drone at its disposal, which has a line of sight to targets more than 340 miles away.
Maeda, the defense expert, said the scenario most likely to play out will include a U.S. spy satellite capturing the launch, calculating the time, angle, altitude and speed to determine where it’s headed, and then passing the information on to the U.S. Navy’s 7th Fleet and JMSDF.
Then, once the rocket re-enters the atmosphere, the ship-borne SM-3 interceptor missiles could destroy it and the Patriot batteries could shoot the debris, if it falls within their range. Maeda said, based on its path, it was unlikely either military would have to launch an interceptor missile.
“When the Japanese hear ‘North Korea’ they tend to get carried away and become critical with their response,” Maeda said. “This should be a matter to be taken care of diplomatically in a calm manner.”
Stars and Stripes reporter Ashley Rowland and translators Elena Sugiyama and Yoo Kyong Chang contributed to this report.
