3 Apr : North Korea’s military threatened on Thursday to attack Japan if it makes any attempt to shoot down a satellite that the communist state is planning to launch imminently.
"Our revolutionary armed forces… will not hesitate to mount retaliatory strikes if hostile forces show the slightest signs of moving to shoot down our satellite," said a statement from the Joint Chiefs of Staff carried by official media.
"If Japan loses its senses and carries out the shooting of our peaceful satellite, the people’s army will deliver storms of fire in retaliatory strikes not only against already-deployed anti-missile weaponry but Japan’s key facilities."The communist state has announced it will send up a communications satellite between 4th -8th April as part of a peaceful space programme.
The United States and its Asian allies say this is a pretext to test a Taepodong-2 ballistic missile, which could in theory reach Alaska or Hawaii, in violation of UN resolutions.