US, in nod to Tokyo, to send more ships to Japan, prods China

The United States moved on Sunday to reassure Tokyo over its mounting security concerns, saying it would send more missile defence ships to Japan following North Korean launches and use a high level trip to warn China against abusing its "great power".

Japan has watched with alarm in recent weeks as North Korea carried out a series of missile launches, including firing two medium-range missiles capable of hitting the US ally.

Tokyo has also voiced growing anxiety over China's military build-up and increasingly assertive behaviour in a territorial dispute over East China Sea islands. US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel announced that two Navy destroyers equipped with missile defence systems would be deployed to Japan by 2017. It was a response, he said, to provocations from the North, which has also threatened to carry out a "new form" of nuclear test.

The announcement followed other steps taken by the Pentagon to bolster its military posture in Japan, including an October decision to position a second X-band missile defence radar there. That radar is expected to be operational this year. "These steps will greatly enhance our ability to defend both Japan and the US homeland from North Korean ballistic missile threats," Hagel told reporters at Japan's defence ministry.

Narushige Michishita, associate professor and security expert at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, said the moves were "part of the US attempt to bolster reassurances vis-à-vis Japan".

It also fits within the context of broader American efforts to bolster its military presence in the region, part of a strategic "rebalance" or "pivot" toward Asia that President Barack Obama will emphasise during his trip this month to Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and the Philippines.