About the Author
Chaewon Chung
Chaewon Chung covers U.S., Chinese, and Japanese politics and national security in relation to North Korea. She previously worked at Coda Story covering disinformation and technology with a focus on the East Asia.
Japan’s ruling party reportedly agreed this week to pursue “enemy base strike capability,” revisiting an oft-discussed change to Japanese defense policy that experts say is driven in part by increasing concerns about North Korea’s growing missile arsenal.
The DPRK almost always launches missiles eastward in the direction of Japan. There have been 11 projectile tests this year, with its latest — a suspected Hwasong-15 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) — splashing inside Japan’s exclusive maritime economic zone.