US forces deployed a mobile missile-tracking station in Japan for the first time yesterday, officials said, as part of efforts to defend against a potential attack from North Korea.
The Joint Tactical Ground Station was being set up at the Misawa base in Aomori, the northernmost prefecture of Japan's most populous island of Honshu.
It is the first time the US military has deployed the mobile unit in Japan, although one is already in South Korea, said Yutaka Shirasawa, an official at Japan's defense ministry.
The system consists of a vehicle equipped with satellite antennas and information-processing equipment, which is meant to send news of incoming missiles to the US military and Japanese defense ministry.
It will be operated by 18 US servicepeople from an army base in the western US state of Colorado, Shirasawa said, adding the local government was informed of the deployment on Thursday.
Tokyo and Washington began work on a missile defense shield for Japan after North Korea shocked the world in 1998 by firing a long-range missile over Japan into the Pacific Ocean.
The Pacific allies have continued to work on developing the shield despite ongoing negotiations with North Korea, which has agreed to end its nuclear drive in return for aid and diplomatic benefits.
But local authorities and media had criticized the deployment, saying they were not sufficiently informed.
"The US military might not be able to disclose military secrets. However, we should not just let it be," the local To-o Nippo newspaper said in an editorial before the deployment. "The mayor must press the US military and the [Japanese] government to give us a detailed explanation."
In March, Japan for the first time installed Patriot surface-to-air missile interceptors in the Tokyo area.
The US last year installed Japan's first anti-missile system on the southern island of Okinawa, the hub of the 40,000 US troops in Japan.
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