Japan warns N Korea over attack

JAPAN has warned it would launch a pre-emptive military action against North Korea if it had firm evidence Pyongyang was planning a missile attack.

Defence Minister Shigeru Ishiba said it would be “a self-defence measure” if North Korea was going to “resort to arms against Japan”. Mr Ishiba said it would be too late if a North Korean missile was already on its way.

His remarks were the latest in the international row over Pyongyang’s nuclear intentions and followed a North Korean warning that it had the ability to strike American targets anywhere in the world, if provoked.