TOKYO -- Japan's Cabinet on Tuesday approved a plan to purchase a set of land-based U.S. missile combat systems to increase the country's defense capabilities in response to escalating threats from North Korea.
The approval will allow the Defense Ministry to buy two Aegis Ashore systems to add to Japan's current two-step missile defense consisting of Patriot batteries and Aegis-equipped destroyers.
"North Korea's nuclear and missile development has become a greater and more imminent threat for Japan's national security, and we need to drastically improve our ballistic missile defense capability to protect Japan continuously and sustainably," a statement issued by the Cabinet said.
Each Aegis Ashore battery is estimated to cost almost $900 million, defense ministry officials told a meeting of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party on Dec. 12, Kyodo News reported. Last month, U.S. President Donald Trump urged Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to purchase more U.S. military equipment.
North Korea has fired two missiles over Japan this year, as well as three intercontinental ballistic missiles on steep trajectories into the Sea of Japan. In September, the isolated regime threatened to sink Japan "into the sea" with a nuclear strike and turn the U.S. into "ashes and darkness."
The system has already drawn the attention of Japan's neighbors.
China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Hua Chunying said Tuesday that neighboring countries follow Japan's military deployments closely for historical reasons.
"We think this involves strategic mutual trust between various countries and we hope Japan can take the security concerns of other countries into consideration," she said at a regular briefing in Beijing.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov last month expressed concern that the U.S. system is encircling Russia, saying it's unacceptable to militarize the region as a response to the Korean crisis.
The deployment will add to growing defense costs in Japan as Abe's government pushes to allow the military a greater international role and increase its use of advanced U.S. missile combat and defense equipment.
Officials say they hope the Aegis systems will be ready for operation by 2023.
Officials refused to disclose cost details until a planned release of a 2018 budget, in which defense spending is expected to rise to a record.
Abe has said he fully backs Trump's policy of keeping all options on the table, including possible military actions, against North Korea.
Defense officials declined to give details about potential sites for Aegis Ashore deployment, while Japanese reports cited Self-Defense Force bases in Akita, northern Japan, and Yamaguchi, in southwestern Japan.
Defense officials said they chose Aegis Ashore over the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense system because of its cheaper cost and versatility. Typically, a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense setup comes with 48 missiles and 9 mobile launch pads, priced about $1.1 billion, and Japan would need at least six of those to defend the country, officials said.
The deployment of the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense system in South Korea triggered protests from China, as Beijing sees it as a security threat.
Aegis Ashore can be compatible with the ship-based Aegis systems that are on four Japanese destroyers and also could work with SM-6 interceptors capable of shooting down cruise missiles, defense officials said. Japan plans to add four more Aegis-equipped destroyers in coming years.
The U.S. has installed the land-fixed Aegis in Romania and Poland, and Japan will be the third country to host the system.
Information for this article was contributed by Mari Yamaguchi of The Associated Press; and by Isabel Reynolds of Bloomberg News.
A Section on 12/20/2017