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Taro Aso made the shock comments at a press conference in Utsunomiya, north of Tokyo. He questioned whether police would be able to handle a mass influx of people fleeing war in North Korea, before making his extreme suggestion. He said: “Can police handle them? "Will the Self-Defence Forces be dispatched and shoot them down? "We'd better think about it seriously.”

GETTY Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso is worried about North Korean refugees armed with guns entering Japan

Mr Aso claied as many as 100,000 North Korean refugees could arrive along the Sea of Japan coast, and that some of them could be armed. The question of if and where to take in refugees also needed to be discussed, he said. Mr Aso added: "It's a politician's job to think of (emergency) response. It may not be an event in the distant future." The question of what would happen in the event of war toppling the Kim Jong-un regime has been raised many times before, and is one of the main reasons China is keen on calming tensions between Pyongyang and Washington.

North Korea celebrates nuclear test Thu, September 7, 2017 North Korea held a mass celebration for the scientists involved in carrying out its largest nuclear blast to date, with fireworks and a mass rally in Pyongyang Play slideshow AFP/Getty Images 1 of 17 Korean People's Army (KPA) soldiers cheer during a mass celebration in Pyongyang