Japan gets ready to shoot down N. Korea spy satellite debris

By MARI YAMAGUCHI
Associated Press

TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s defense chief has ordered troops to activate missile interceptors and get ready to shoot down fragments from a North Korean satellite that may fall on the Japanese territory. North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un said earlier this week that its first military spy satellite that will be launched at an unspecified date. North Korea has test-fired about 100 missiles since early last year, saying it was responding to joint U.S.-South Korean military drills that it calls an invasion rehearsal. Several of the missiles flew over Japan or landed off the northern Japanese coast. Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada on Saturday instructed troops to ready surface-to-air missiles in southwestern Japan in an area believed to be under a flight path of a North Korean rocket.