Japan deploys missile defenses in Tokyo amid North Korea concerns
Baku, April 9 (AZERTAC). Japan deployed missile-defense systems at three sites around Tokyo early Tuesday ahead of a possible missile launch by North Korea, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said.
The Patriot missile batteries were set up in the central district of Ichigaya and in the suburbs of Asaka and Narashino, Suga told reporters Tuesday. The deployments come as U.S. and South Korean officials warn Pyongyang could be preparing for another provocative move after weeks of belligerent rhetoric.
Suga had said Monday that the Japanese government would not publicize any missile-defense deployment, saying "It would show our strategy to North Korea."
The comments came a day after North Korea said it would pull out all its workers and temporarily suspend operations at the industrial complex it jointly operates with the South, the latest sign of deteriorating relations on the Korean Peninsula.
The North said it would also consider permanently closing down the Kaesong Industrial Complex, a shared manufacturing zone that is the last major symbol of cooperation between the two countries.
On Tuesday morning, the South Korean Unification Ministry said North Korean workers hadn't so far reported for work.
The deteriorating situation in Kaesong came after the South Korean government had briefly caused concern about the prospect of a new North Korean nuclear test.
South Korea's Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae's office clarified his earlier statements in the day about North Korea's nuclear test plans by saying the North had been "continuously preparing" for another nuclear test since February, and that there hadn't been any new signs.
There was some confusion that earlier comments may have suggested new information indicating the North's nuclear test plans -- something that could have ratcheted up tensions with North Korea. The minister's office made clear that this was not his intended meaning.
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But the crisis at the joint industrial complex provided a tangible sign of the North's provocative stance.
In a statement carried by the official North Korean news agency, Kim Yang Gon, secretary of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, accused the South of seeking "to turn the zone into a hotbed of war" against the North.
Pyongyang was already preventing South Korean workers and managers from entering the complex, which sits on the North's side of the militarily fortified border, and threatened to shut it down entirely amid its recent stream of verbal broadsides against Seoul and Washington.
The South Korean Unification Ministry wasn't immediately able to confirm whether the North had actually begun withdrawing its more than 50,000 workers from Kaesong yet.
If Pyongyang follows through on its declaration, the move could be financially costly, since Kaesong is considered to be an important source of hard currency for Kim Jong Un's isolated regime.
The ban on the entry into the zone of new workers and trucks was already putting a strain on personnel and supplies for the scores of South Korean companies operating there, prompting more than 10 of them to cease production.
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