TOKYO (Kyodo) -- The Maritime Self-Defense Force's Aegis ship Kirishima on Saturday morning left the Yokosuka base in Kanagawa Prefecture for the East China Sea ahead of a planned rocket launch by North Korea.Kirishima, equipped with sea-based interceptor missiles, will deploy on the sea together with two other Aegis ships to shoot down the rocket in outer space if it begins falling in Japanese territory.
To brace for the planned launch, ground-based Patriot Advanced Capability-3 interceptors will also be deployed on Miyako Island, Okinawa Prefecture.
The move comes in the wake of North Korea's announcement earlier in March that it will launch an ''earth observation satellite'' using a rocket to mark the April 15 centennial of its state founder Kim Il Sung's birth. Source
