The United States is planning a major expansion of missile defenses in Asia, part of the Obama administration's new defense strategy to transfer resources to the Asia-Pacific region after a decade of war in Iraq and Afghanistan. US officials say the build-up is designed to counter threats from North Korea, but could also deal with increasingly aggressive moves from China on the South China Sea. At this point, plans call for a new radar in southern Japan and perhaps another in Southeast Asia "tied to missile-defense ships and land-based interceptors."

Read more in the Wall Street Journal.