This was enough to stir U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel to a Friday announcement about enhancedmissile defenses in Alaska, but the more serious rethinking is in Seoul.
We need to increase our military capability in the Western Pacific, to include our own anti-missile and anti-ship ballistic-missile capabilities as well as enhanced anti-submarine forces.
Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel announced on March 15th that the modest array of U.S. missile defenses now in place would be enhanced in the face of a growing threat from the increasingly truculent regime in North Korea.
With a neighbour as erratic as North Korea, Japan has been able to justify a number of security initiatives, including an enhanced military relationship with the United States, and the exploratory development of a missile-defence system.