Japanese Military to Focus on Chinese Threat

The Washington Post reports:

TOKYO – Revising a defense strategy shaped by the Cold War, Japan will soon release a new military plan designed to address China’sincreased threat, particularly in waters surrounding southern Japanese islands, according to media reports.

Several Japanese newspapers this weekend outlined the main points of the National Defense Program Guidelines, to be released this month.

The guidelines will deemphasize the concern about a Russian invasion from the north, instead calling for mobile units that could move quickly to any spot where there’s a threat, particularly in the event of a North Korean attack or a naval clash with China around the southern Nansei Islands. The guidelines also call for Japan’s Special Defense Forces to coordinate more closely with allies, including the United States, Australia and South Korea.

Japan’s new strategy jibes with recent thinking in Washington, where officials have urged Japan to increase its military role in the region, even participating in coming military drills with the United States and South Korea.

Recent months have proved the numerous security threats in Japan’s neighborhood. A bitter diplomatic row with China grew in September from a dispute over territory in the East China Sea. More recently, North Korea has unveiled a new uranium enrichment facility – a potential path of weapons-grade material – and shelled a South Korean island, killing two South Korean marines and two civilians.

According to an account in the Asahi newspaper, a major Japanese daily, the new defense guidelines will term North Korea a “major factor for instability” in the region. Chinese military actions, meantime, will be described as a “concern” for the region and the world.

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Obama: N. Korea is ‘Serious’ Threat

ABC News reports:

President Obama today strongly condemned North Korea’s attack on South Korea and, in an exclusive interview with ABC News’ Barbara Walters, urged China to take a stand against aggression.

“This is a — just one more provocative incident in a series that we’ve seen over the last several months, and I’m going to be talking to the president of Korea — South Korea this evening and we’ll be consulting closely with them in terms of the appropriate response,” the president said. “We’ve strongly condemned the attack…We are rallying the international community once again to put pressure on North Korea.”

Obama wouldn’t speculate on military actions the U.S. may take, but reiterated that South Korea is “one of our most important allies” and “a cornerstone of U.S. security in the Pacific region.”

“We want to make sure all the parties in the region recognize that this is a serious and ongoing threat that has to be dealt with,” the president added.

He specifically called on China to stand firm and “make clear to North Korean that there are a set of international rules that they need to abide by.”

A White House official today told ABC’s Jake Tapper that the United States is discussing a number of measures with its allies, including action at the United Nations Security Council and further sanctions, and more joint U.S.-South Korea military exercises, to demonstrate solidarity and support.

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