North Korea launched missile that flew over Japan
Tokyo (CNN)North Korea has fired a missile over Japan which Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has called the "most serious and grave ever" threat to the country.
The missile was fired just before 6 a.m. in Japan. The launch set off warnings in the northern part of the country urging people to seek shelter.
It flew over Erimomisaki, on the northern island of Hokkaido, and broke into three pieces before falling into the Pacific Ocean, about 1,180 kilometers (733 miles) off the Japanese coast.
The missile was in flight for about 14 minutes, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said at an emergency press conference. "There is no immediate report of the fallen objects and no damage to the ships and aircraft," he added.
Pentagon spokesman US Army Col. Rob Manning said the launch did not pose an immediate threat to North America.
Hokkaido
Sunan
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Abe told reporters he had a 40-minute phone call with US President Donald Trump to discuss the missile launch. The two countries have requested an urgent meeting of the United Nations Security Council, according to Japan's ambassador to the UN, Koro Bessho.
"The international community has to put more pressure on North Korea," Ambassador Bessho said.
The missile was launched near the North Korean capital of Pyongyang, which is rare.
CNN's Will Ripley, who is on the ground in Pyongyang, said the news had not been broadcast to people inside North Korea as of 9:45 a.m. local time.
South Korea responded by conducting a bombing drill at 9:30 a.m. local time to test its "capability to destroy the North Korean leadership" in cases of emergency, an official with the country's Defense Ministry told CNN.
Yoon Young-chan, the head of South Korea's Presidential Office Public Affairs Office, told reporters that Ffur F-15K fighter jets dropped eight one-ton MK-84 bombs at a shooting range.
The operation was meant "to showcase a strong punishment capability against the North," he said
First time since 1998
Tuesday's launch comes just three days after Pyongyang test-fired three short-range ballistic missiles from Kangwon province -- of the three, one failed.
Notably, however, it is the the first time the country has successfully fired a missile over Japan since 1998, when it sent a satellite launch vehicle over the country.
North Korea also launched satellites into orbit in 2012 and 2016, after which parts of both rockets that carried the satellites fell into the waters to Japan's east and south. Experts say those satellite launches could be used to test the same technology used in ballistic missiles.
Analysts believe Tuesday's launch shows a new level of confidence from the North Koreans.
"It is a big deal that they overflew Japan, which they have carefully avoided doing for a number of years, even though it forced them to test missiles on highly lofted trajectories, and forced them to launch their satellites to the south, which is less efficient than launching to the east (due to the Earth's rotational motion)," said David Wright, co-director of the Global Security Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists.
"This will make it more difficult for the US to get Japanese support for diplomacy, unfortunately, at exactly the time when the situation is heating up."
US Senator Lindsey Graham quickly weighed in on Twitter, calling the launch a "a big-time" escalation of conflict
News Courtesy: www.cnn.com
