I say we take a shot at it.

Asou Tarou, souridaijin (Prime Minister T. Aso) gave a rather lengthy press conference today. Leaving aside the issues of his popularity and the coming need for parliamentary elections looming on the ever-closer horizon...

...the major topic was the reaction to the planned North Korean missile launch, supposedly to happen in the next month's time. The claim is now being made at both the governmental and media levels that Japan will not tolerate having another North Korean missile lobbed across our country, and that countermeasures are intended.

That's fine by me.

Absolutely nothing in the whole world would shake the very souls of want-to-be minor nuclear blackmailers like North Korea and Iran like a demonstration that their neighbors are not just unwilling to be blackmailed, but are perfectly capable of thwarting any demonstration of threat by the blackmailers.

I say we take a shot at it. SM-3's launched for interception, in pairs, from international waters in the Sea of Japan. Just like we practiced off Hawaii last year.

Then we'll talk about the terms for the Six-Party Negotiations.