Japan to send troops to Korean peninsula as Mike Pence says US will form ‘iron-clad alliance’ against Kim Jong-un
Defence chief reveals plot to invade and rescue Japanese nationals as prospect of war with North Korea becomes clearer
JAPAN has plans to send troops to the Korean peninsula to protect its nationals should war with North Korea break out.
A crisis invasion and evacuation plot has been drawn up in a sign of boiling-point tensions in the region.
It comes as US Vice President Mike Pence touched down in the country to pledge support against tyrant Kim Jong-un, repeating the vow that "all options are on the table".
He had earlier told South Korean leaders that the US would form an "iron-clad alliance" against the dictator.
North Korea has launched several missiles towards Japan in recent months, with several rockets getting within miles of its coastline.
The hermit state is believed to be on the verge of a sixth nuclear test and has threatened to fire practice shots "every week".
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Defence Minister Tomomi Inada told parliament the country would be ready to mobilise its troops if Japanese needed to be rescued.
She added that such a dispatch of troops from the historically pacifist nation is allowed under Japanese law if it meets the consent of the related country.
But her statement faces a backlash from South Koreans who remember Japan's brutal colonial occupation from 1910-1945.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met Mr Pence on Tuesday after he arrived from visiting the Demilitarized Zone dividing North and South Korea — where he said that the "era of patience" with the crackpot regime was over.
After agreeing further economic ties between Japan and the US, Mr Pence said America will not relent until it rids Korea of nuclear weapons.
Pence told reporters President Donald Trump was confident that economic and diplomatic pressure from the "family of nations" could rein in North Korea.
After talks with Japan's deputy prime minister, Taro Aso, Pence said the US would work with Japan, China and other nations to get Pyongyang to give up its atomic weapons program.
Asked what North Korea must do, he repeated that "all options are on the table, and there they will remain."
North Korea was humiliated when its latest missile test on Saturday ended in failure.
There was speculation that US hackers were responsible for the misfiring rocket.
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