N KOREA FIRES ANOTHER MISSILE OVER JAPAN, DEEPENS TENSIONS
Launch prompts UN Security Council to discuss dealing with threat
SEOUL/TOKYO: North Korea fired a missile that flew over Japan’s northern Hokkaido far out into the Pacific Ocean on Friday, South Korean and Japanese officials said, further ratcheting up tensions after Pyongyang’s recent test of its most powerful nuclear bomb.
The missile flew over Japan and landed in the Pacific, Japanese chief cabinet secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters.
Warning announcements about the missile blared around 7 am local time in the town of Kamaishi in northern Japan, footage from national broadcaster NHK showed.
US defence secretary James Mattis said the launch “put millions of Japanese into duck and cover”, although residents in Japan appeared calm and went about their business as normal.
US officials said Washington’s commitments to the defence of its allies remained “ironclad”. Secretary of state Rex Tillerson called for “new measures” against North Korea and that “these continued provocations only deepen North Korea’s diplomatic and economic isolation”.
The UN Security Council was scheduled to meet later on Friday at the request of the US and Japan, diplomats said, days after the 15-member council unanimously stepped up sanctions against North Korea over its September 3 nuclear test.
“The international community needs to come together and send a clear message to North Korea that it is threatening world peace with its actions,” Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters in Tokyo.