On July 23, North Korea analysis website 38 North reported that that the DPRK appears to be dismantling components of one of its rocket test sites. Satellite images indicate that the rail-mounted processing/transfer structure and the rocket engine test stand at the Sohae Satellite Launching Station are being deconstructed. Nam Gwan-pyo, an official in South...
Recent reports suggest that North Korea was building facilities at a solid-fuel ballistic missile site in the lead-up to the U.S.-DPRK summit on June 12. On July 1, The Wall Street Journal reported that Planet Labs’ satellite “images analyzed by the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, Calif., show that North Korea was finishing...
On June 21, Japan will cancel missile evacuation drills in nine prefectures, citing the reduced threat from North Korea following the Trump-Kim summit in Singapore on June 12. According to Time, “Japan’s government started missile-specific evacuation drills last March,” and stated that it would not hold the drills provided the current threat from North Korea...
In a nuclear world, nuclear weapons are needed to deter major attacks, but who should possess these instruments of deterrence? Today the challenge of keeping nonnuclear states from going nuclear may be growing, perhaps nowhere quite as much as in northeast Asia...
The Japanese Defense Ministry has requested an additional 730 million yen (6.4 million USD) in the FY 2018 defense budget to begin building two land-based Aegis Ashore missile defense systems. Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera told reporters on Sunday that, “There is a need to strengthen our capability to regularly and sustainably defend all of the...
For the next two days, the United States, Japan, and South Korea will conduct a joint missile tracking exercise in the Sea of Japan. The exercise will include Aegis-equipped destroyers conducting computer-simulated training for submarine missile launches by North Korea, according to South Korean military officials. The drill comes as experts speculate that North Korea...
Japanese government officials have announced a 2.9 trillion yen (25.9 billion USD) supplementary budget for missile defense and other programs related to North Korea that will be submitted for approval for the fiscal year through March. According to an unnamed source, Japan is also considering the acquisition of strike missiles, including the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff...
On November 2, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) finished installing the 44th Ground-based Interceptor (GBI) at the Missile Defense Complex at Fort Greely, Alaska, completing the deployment of 14 additional GBIs ordered by President Obama in 2013. The final emplacement occurred just ahead of the year-end deadline. The Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system is designed to...
Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced Tuesday that nine of Australia’s new planned frigates, scheduled to enter construction in 2020, will be fitted with the Aegis combat system, which will allow them to perform both air and missile defense missions. In announcing the decision, Turnbull emphasized that “Recent events in our region have proven that...
The South Korean Ministry of Defense announced that the U.S. military will be allowed to install four more THAAD launchers at the site in Seongju, North Gyeongsang Province after the Ministry of Environment concluded that the full deployment would have only a small impact on the people and neighboring environment. This decision comes after the...
