TOKYO (AP) -- Japan's ruling party urged the government Thursday to consider arming itself with more advanced and offensive capability, such as striking enemy targets with cruise missiles, further loosening the self-defense-only military posture the country has had since the end of World War II.
The Liberal Democratic Party's council on defense policy urged the government to immediately start studying ways to bolster Japan's capability to intercept missiles with a system such as the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD system, that the U.S. and Seoul have agreed to install in South Korea.
The panel cited a "new level of threat" from North Korea, which fired four missiles this month, three of them landing inside Japan-claimed exclusive economic waters.
"North Korea's provocative acts have reached a level that Japan absolutely cannot overlook," the party's security panel said in the proposal given to Abe. "We should not waste any time to strengthen our ballistic missile defense."
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