N Korean missile flies over Japan
JAPAN: North Korea launched a ballistic missile yesterday that flew over the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, the most brazen provocation of Kim Jongun’s five-year rule and one that will reignite tensions between Pyongyang and the outside world.
In Japan, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was visibly agitated by North Korea’s actions. ‘‘Launching a missile and flying it over our country was a reckless act, and it represents a serious threat without precedent to Japan,’’ he said after an emergency national security council meeting.
Abe said he agreed with United States President Donald Trump in telephone talks to increase pressure on North Korea. Trump also said that the US was ‘‘100 percent with Japan’’ and showed a strong commitment to Tokyo’s defence, Abe said.
The US, Japan and South Korea asked for an urgent United Nations Security Council meeting to discuss the launch. Earlier this month, the council unanimously imposed new sanctions on North Korea in response to two longrange missile launches in July.
The missile appears to have been a Hwasong-12, an intermediate-range ballistic missile technically capable of flying 4800 kilometres, easily putting the US Pacific territory of Guam within reach. However, the missile flew east, over Hokkaido and into the Pacific Ocean, rather than on a southward path towards Guam.
Japan’s upgraded missile response system swung into action, sending emergency alerts via cellphones and over loudspeakers, warning people on the potential flight path and advising them to take cover.
The latest launch, coming after North Korea last month launched two intercontinental ballistic missiles theoretically capable of reaching the mainland US, underscores both Kim’s defiance of the international community and his determination to press ahead with his missile programme.
Analysts said it marked a worrying escalation. ’’This is a much more dangerous style of test,’’ said Abraham Denmark, director of the Asia programme at the Kissinger Institute and a former top East Asia official at the Pentagon.
North Korea’s recent missile tests were carefully calibrated to go nearly straight up and land in the sea between the Korean Peninsula and Japan, rather than overflying Japan.
The latest missile appeared to have broken into three pieces during flight, but all of the parts landed in the sea.
‘‘North Korean missiles have a habit of breaking apart in flight, so if this happened and parts of it landed in Japan, even if it was not North Korea’s intention, this would amount to a de facto attack on Japan,’’ Denmark said.
US intelligence agencies had seen signs of the impending launch hours earlier, when they spotted Hwasong-12 missile equipment being moved into place.
North Korea has sent a missile over Japan before, in 1998. Part of a North Korean rocket also flew over Japan in 2009, although Pyongyang claimed it was a satellite launch and gave Japan notice beforehand.
Yesterday’s launch, on the heels of three short-range missiles fired on Saturday, comes amid ongoing joint exercises between the US and South Korean militaries, exercises that North Korea always strongly protests because it considers them preparation for an invasion.
Kim - who has ordered the launch of 18 missiles this year alone, compared to the 16 missiles his father, Kim Jong-il, fired during 17 years in power - has defied international calls to stop. Missile launches and nuclear tests are banned by the UN Security Council, but Kim has pressed ahead unrelentingly.
- Washington Post, Reuters