Australia may join missile defence study

Japan and the US plan to expand a joint study on missile defence by adding Australia amid concerns about North Korea's weapons program, a news report said.

Japan and the United States have been stepping up efforts to build a joint missile defence system following North Korea's nuclear test in October.

Australia would join the two countries to share information on missile defence and discuss how to respond to various situations, Japan's business daily Nikkei reported, citing unnamed officials at Japan's Defence Ministry.

Defence Ministry officials could not immediately confirm the report.

The three countries reached an agreement on the three-party joint study during a meeting of defence and foreign affairs senior officials held in Tokyo last month, the paper said.

The possible scenarios that the three countries will study are attacks by North Korea's medium range missiles as well as Chinese ballistic missiles reaching the US territory of Guam or Australia, Nikkei said.

Australia has not decided to introduce missile defence but is expected to explore the possibility of having such a system, according to the report.