N Korea to 'crush Interceptors
31/03/2009
Seoul - North Korea will view any interception by Japan of its satellite launch an aggressive act and respond as with its "most powerful military means", the communist state's news agency said on Tuesday.
If Japan dares to shoot down the satellite, the Korean Central News Agency said, "our military will consider it as gunfire from the war criminal Japan that signals a re-invasion 60 years after World War II".
The North Korean military will "mercilessly crush all interceptors... with our most powerful military means", it added.
The North has said it will launch a communications satellite some time between April 4-8. The United States, South Korea and Japan say the launch is a cover for a long-range ballistic missile test.
North Korea has warned that the first booster rocket would likely plunge into the Sea of Japan (East Sea) off Japan's northern Akita prefecture, while the second stage would drop into the Pacific between Japan and Hawaii.
Japan has deployed land- and sea-based anti-missile systems to try to bring down the rocket, should it start falling toward Japanese territory. The North has previously said it would regard a rocket interception as an act of war.
On Tuesday Japanese lawmakers passed a resolution denouncing the planned launch as a threat to peace in Northeast Asia.
Japan colonised Korea from 1910-45 and is regularly vilified by North Korea.
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