Japan warns N. Korea over any missile ‘attack’

TOKYO – Japan warned North Korea yesterday it would regard any test-fired missile that landed on Japanese soil as an attack, after reports the secretive nation was preparing to jangle international nerves with a new missile launch.

Foreign Minister Taro Aso said Tokyo was ready to slap sanctions on the North, which surprised the world by firing a missile over Japan in 1998 without warning. He said any repeat launch would lead immediately to the UN Security Council.”If they failed and the missile dropped on …Japan, things would be complicated,” Aso said on Japanese television.”It will be regarded as an attack.”Reports of the imminent test of a long-range missile with the range to hit parts of the United States have drawn stiff warnings from Washington as well as from Japan and South Korea.Japan’s Sankei Shimbun newspaper, citing unnamed Japanese government sources, said citizens of the Stalinist state had been advised to raise the national flag at 0500 GMT and watch a message on television.- Nampa-AFPHe said any repeat launch would lead immediately to the UN Security Council.”If they failed and the missile dropped on …Japan, things would be complicated,” Aso said on Japanese television.”It will be regarded as an attack.”Reports of the imminent test of a long-range missile with the range to hit parts of the United States have drawn stiff warnings from Washington as well as from Japan and South Korea.Japan’s Sankei Shimbun newspaper, citing unnamed Japanese government sources, said citizens of the Stalinist state had been advised to raise the national flag at 0500 GMT and watch a message on television.- Nampa-AFP