Japan has dispatched its biggest warship to protect a US military vessel in the Pacific Ocean for the first time in modern history following the enactment of a controversial new security law.
J apan has dispatched its biggest warship to protect a US military vessel in the Pacific Ocean for the first time in modern history following the enactment of a controversial new security law.
The Izumo, Japan’s biggest warship since World War Two, left Yokosuka port in Kanagawa prefecture on Monday with the reported task of protecting a US supply ship within Japanese waters.
The mission is the first operation of its kind since new security legislation championed by the prime minister Shinzo Abe was enacted last year which allowed the nation to expand the role of its troops overseas.
T he new legislation, which faced widespread opposition in Japan, allows the government to exercise its right to collective self-defence without breaking its pacifist post-war constitution.
The Izumo is expected to protect the US supply ship while it refuels American warships in the region, including the USS Carl Vinson strike group which started drills with the South Korean navy on Saturday.
A defiant North Korea responded on Monday by declaring it will bolster its nuclear force “to the maximum” in a “consecutive and successive way at any moment” while accusing the US of aggression and hysteria.
A t the same time, Mike Pompeo, the CIA director, was making an unannounced visit to the South Korean capital with his wife.
