Japanese Ordered to Take Shelter After Latest North Korean Missile Barrage
Residents were warned to immediately take shelter indoors in Japan’s Miyagi, Yamagata and Niigata prefectures. Television broadcasts in some parts of the country were interrupted by emergency alerts.
Japan’s emergency broadcast system initially said the North Korean missile flew over and past Japanese territory, but defense officials later retracted that claim. Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada said officials lost track of the missile while it was flying over the sea between Korea and Japan.
According to Japan’s defense ministry, the missile flew 750 kilometers and reached an altitude of about 2,000 kilometers. South Korea’s military characterized it as a long-range missile, which landed in the sea off Korea’s east coast.
About an hour after that missile launch Thursday, North Korea sent two more short-range missiles into the ocean, South Korean and Japanese defense officials said.
North Korea has launched at least 27 missiles, along with more than 100 rounds of artillery, since early Wednesday, as it continues to display its anger over ongoing U.S.-South Korea military drills.
North Korea aimed three of Wednesday’s launches toward South Korea, triggering alerts on televisions in the South and air raid sirens on an island off the coast.
One of the North Korean missiles fell into waters just 57 kilometers east of Sokcho, a coastal tourist city in South Korea’s northeast. Another missile landed 167 kilometers from Ulleung County, a sparsely populated island region off South Korea’s east coast. The third fell in international waters, 26 kilometers south of the de facto inter-Korean sea border.
In response, South Korea’s military said its warplanes launched three missiles north of the de facto sea border to demonstrate Seoul’s “capability and readiness to strike the enemy with precision.”
Neither country had sent missiles across the Northern Limit Line since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War; on Wednesday they both did within hours of each other.
In response, South Korea’s transport ministry said it closed some air routes off its east coast until at least Thursday morning.
North Korea has fired more than 50 ballistic missiles this year — a record — but until Wednesday none had been launched toward South Korean territory or resulted in public air raid alerts.
The developments further raise tensions on the Korean Peninsula, where both sides have increased displays of military strength.
On Tuesday, North Korea warned for a second consecutive day that Washington and Seoul should halt military drills.
“Such military rashness and provocation can be no longer tolerated,” said Pak Jong Chon, secretary of the Central Committee of North Korea’s Workers’ Party, in a statement posted to North Korean state media.
A day earlier, a North Korean foreign ministry official warned of “powerful follow-up measures” if the U.S.-South Korean drills didn't stop.
South Korean and U.S. officials have for months warned that North Korea is in the final stages of preparations for what would be its seventh nuclear test since 2006.
On Tuesday, U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price dismissed North Korea’s latest threats and repeated Washington’s longtime insistence that the joint military exercises are defensive in nature.