Japan defense minister says prepared to shoot down North Korean spy satellite should it fall on Japan

Japanese defense minister Yasukazu Hamada said the Japanese military is prepared to down a North Korean spy satellite should it fall over Japanese territory. This follows North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s order to proceed with the preparations to launch the nation’s first spy satellite as planned.

On Saturday, the Japanese defense ministry said in a statement that Hamada had ordered the Japanese military to make the necessary preparations in case Hamada may “order the destruction of ballistic missiles” should they fall within Japan’s territory. Some of the preparations included making arrangements to deploy troops to the Okinawa prefecture to “minimize damage should a ballistic missile fall.”

This followed reports by North Korean state media on Wednesday last week, that Kim has ordered the isolated nation to proceed with the preparations to launch its first spy satellite. The spy satellite is part of Pyongyang’s efforts to counter what it sees are threats posed by the United States and South Korea.

Local media said on Sunday that the ruling Liberal Democratic Party of Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is expected to win four out of five by-elections in a sign of increasing support for Kishida. The five parliamentary races follow the recent planned attack on Kishida eight days prior, during his remarks at an event for one of the elections. The incident harkened back to last year’s assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was also at an election campaign event when he was fatally shot.

NHK and other local media reported that Nobuchiyo Kishi, the son of former defense minister Nobuo Kishi won a seat in the lower house of parliament in the Yamaguchi prefecture. Another LDP candidate also won a lower House of Parliament seat in the district that Abe used to hold. LDP candidates also won an upper house seat in the Oita prefecture of Kyushu and a lower house seat in the Chiba prefecture near Tokyo.

Analysts have said that with these races, the focus would now be on whether Kishida uses this to his advantage and call for a snap election. However, Kishida has said on Monday that he was not thinking about whether to call a snap election.