Japanese Defense Minister says on Friday he has issued an order to shoot down a planned North Korean rocket if it threatens the nation’s territory.

Japanese Defense Minister says on Friday he has issued an order to shoot down a planned North Korean rocket if it threatens the nation’s territory.

"I issued a destroy order," Defense Minister Naoki Tanaka told reporters in Tokyo, saying he had received the green light to shoot it down.
The order was issued after Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's cabinet approved it on Friday morning.

North Korea said this month it would fire a rocket to put a satellite into orbit between April 12 and 16 to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of founding president Kim Il-Sung.
Last week Tanaka said he was readying Japan's missile defense systems but Friday's approval gives the military the power to destroy the rocket if necessary.

He said last week surface-to-air interceptors would be deployed on the southern island chain of Okinawa, over which Tokyo believes the projectile may pass, and in central Tokyo, one of the world's biggest cities.
Meanwhile on Friday, Seoul newspaper said Pyongyang test-fired two short-range missiles.

The North fired what appeared to be two KN-01 ground-to-ship missiles with a range of up to 120 kilometers (75 miles) early Thursday from a missile base near the western port of Nampo, Chosun Ilbo newspaper said.

The daily quoted an unidentified Seoul government official as saying the launch was apparently aimed at improving the performance of the projectile and was unrelated to the rocket launch scheduled for next month.