Newsweek International Assistant Managing Editor Fred Guterl reports on four battle cruisers in the Sea of Japan--two American, two Japanese--that carry missiles capable of reaching North Korean nuclear-tipped rockets on their way to Japan. The U.S. Navy has seventy-three Aegis ships. As the Obama administration shows signs of backing away from plans to put missile defenses in Poland and the Czech Republic, this fleet of "Aegis" cruisers, as they're called, may be called upon to take up the slack.
