TOKYO, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- Japanese Defense Minister Tomomi Inada is to start from Thursday a two-day visit to the western Pacific island Guam, where she is slated to inspect the controversial U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system at the U.S. Andersen Air Force Base.
Inada told a press conference on Tuesday that Japan is trying to find ways to strengthen its ballistic missile defense system, as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)'s nuclear and missile programs "pose a new level of threat."
Though Japan's Defense Ministry "has no concrete plan to introduce THAAD at this stage," "the installation of such new asset could be one of the measures to reinforce our (missile defense) capabilities," she said.
THAAD is a U.S. army anti-ballistic missile system, designed by the U.S. defense company Lockheed Martin, to shoot down missiles in a terminal phase using a hit-to-kill approach. It is considered core assets of the U.S. missile defense system.
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