Following on from President Obama’s announcement in 2012 that the US is pivoting concentration of its imperial agenda to the Asia Pacific region, the US has now announced it will strengthen its missile systems in Alaska, increasing its capacity significantly by near 50 percent in response, it says, to the perceived threat from North Korea - specifically the threat of a pre-emptive nuclear attack from North Korea on to the United States. China responded to the announcement saying any move to increase missile defense capacities in Alaska by the US is aimed at China and will only intensify antagonism for China and not help to resolve differences. China considers the US move to be irresponsible.

Press TV interviewed John McGlynn, political commentator, Tokyo about this issue.

McGlynn says, "Basically I think the answer to that question is yes because now we go back to the US pivot to the Asia Pacific, which was announced by the Obama administration before the last year’s election.

"You had a quote I heard a moment ago from John Kerry who was talking the calculations of Syria, well, it’s the same thing that US officials talk about not necessarily the Secretary of Defense or may be the Secretary of State, but lower level officials when you read their testimony when you read their reports - I’m talking about under Secretary of Defense for example - they’re talking about shaping the calculations or shaping the views of China.

"So, missile defense or things like increasing deployment of drones or other more advanced military systems in and around Japan, I mean it’s all part of shaping China’s military and political calculation, which US officials readily admit, so I would say an increase in the stationing of missile defense deployments in Alaska is just part of shaping China’s political and military calculation."