US radar to boost missile defence in Japan: reports
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On a large television screen in front of Pyongyang's railway station, a North Korean state television broadcaster announces the news that North Korea conducted a nuclear test on Tuesday, Feb 12, 2013. Tokyo and Washington plan to install a US early-warning radar system at a coastal base near Kyoto to bolster defences against the North Korean missile threat, reports said on Sunday, Feb 24, 2013. -- PHOTO: AP
TOKYO (AFP) - Tokyo and Washington plan to install a US early-warning radar system at a coastal base near Kyoto to bolster defences against the North Korean missile threat, reports said on Sunday.
The X-band radar, capable of precisely tracking the trajectory of a ballistic missile, allows US forces to launch intercept missiles from the ground and sea once a ballistic missile has been detected.
It will be the second X-band radar system to be installed in Japan after another was set up in northern Aomori prefecture.
The X-band radar system will be built in an Air Self-Defence Force base in Kyotango, north-west of Kyoto, on the coast of the Sea of Japan, or East Sea, Kyodo News and Jiji Press agencies reported, citing unnamed sources.
