Japan's Defence minister abandons missile system

Kono earlier decided to stop the deployment process of the Aegis Ashore after a discovery that the safety of one of the two planned host communities cannot be ensured without hardware redesigning.

Tokyo:Japan's Defence Minister Taro Kono announced on Thursday the decision to abandon the deployment of a land-based American missile defence system, Aegis Ashore.

The defence system was aimed at bolstering the country's capability against escalating threats from North Korea.

Last week Kono told reporters that he has decided to stop the deployment process of the Aegis Ashore after a discovery that safety of one of the two planned host communities cannot be ensured without a hardware redesigning, which would be too time-consuming and costly.

Defence officials had promised never to allow rocket boosters used to intercept a missile flying over Japan to fall outside of the Ground Self-Defence Force's Mutsumi base in Yamaguchi, southwestern Japan, where one of the two land-based missile defence systems were being planned. The other system was being planned in Akita in the north.

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Japanese and US officials faced technological difficulty in having a safe fall of rocket boosters on to the base, which will require a redesigning of not only the software but also hardware of the system and would take too much cost and time, Kono said.

After announcing scrapping the deployment, Kono said how to carry out missile defence in Japan in the future needs to be discussed.

"Between Japan and the United States, we would like to continue to discuss this missile defence discussion," Kono said.

(AP)