Japan feels directly threatened by North Korean missiles: Commentator

Press TV has conducted an interview with Michael Penn, journalist and political commentator from Tokyo, about the reaction of the Japanese government to the recent missile test in North Korea.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Can you fill us in on this latest North Korea missile test being launched? What’s going on in Tokyo and other countries in that area, reactions from South Korea to Japan?

Penn: Apparently there was an attempt to fire two missiles, one of them may have failed and the other one seems to have been more successful. And these missile firings seem to be happening every few months now.

And the reaction has become kind of standard, which is that the other countries in the region strongly condemn North Korea for carrying out these tests and that Japan is usually one of the strongest in its condemnations because Japan feels directly threatened by these missiles. And the tests seem to be aimed in the direction of Japan many times.

So the Abe administration has called it unacceptable and the anti-missile batteries have been put out around Tokyo in case some projectile should be fired in this direction as well.

Press TV: Do they think that is a high possibility?

Penn: No. I mean, like I said, these events have happened intermittently for some time now, and never before has there been any actual missile attack on Japan and probably there won’t be this time either. But North Korea is demonstrating, … ‘we could hit you with the missile’ and that’s what’s upsetting people in Japan.

Press TV: What’s the word in the streets in Japan, because of course the North Koreans are saying that they actually are doing this because of the continuous US presence in that area. Tell me do people there when you talk to people on the street, the majority of them feel that it’s totally Pyongyang’s own problem that this is happening or do they also point the fingers towards Washington?

Penn: I think the general opinion in Japan on this issue doesn’t really blame the Japanese government at all. The most ordinary Japanese see the pictures of the Kim’s regime in Pyongyang and sort of the strange culture of the entire country and they see it as kind of an eccentric and dangerous regime. So I think that in general the Japanese public is strongly behind its government on this particular issue.

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