Japan is adjusting its plans as U.S. and North Korean leaders exchange rhetorical jabs. Following North Korea's July intercontinental ballistic missile tests and escalating tensions on the peninsula, Japan appears to have decided to expedite plans to deploy a land-based Aegis Ashore missile defense system, according to anonymous officials. Although Japan doesn't yet have the land-based version of the system, its Maritime Self-Defense Force has six Aegis equipped destroyers, four of which the military outfitted for ballistic missile defense, with the other two scheduled for upgrade by 2018. Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera and Foreign Minister Taro Kono are in Washington on Aug. 17 for talks with their U.S. counterparts during which the two sides will discuss the Aegis plans....
