North Korea missile lands near Japan

NORTH Korea has test-fired a longrange ballistic missile into Japanese territorial waters.

The weapon, launched from a submarine, flew 310 miles before falling into the Sea of Japan – the longest distance achieved by the secretive Communist state with that kind of weapon, South Korean officials said.

It puts all of South Korea, and possibly parts of Japan, within striking distance.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called the launch an ‘impermissible and outrageous act’ that poses a grave threat to Japan.

The US Strategic Command said the launch did not pose a threat to North America, but the US military ‘remains vigilant in the face of North Korean provocations’.

North Korea already has a variety of landbased missiles that can hit South Korea and Japan, including US military bases in those countries.

But its development of reliable submarinelaunched missiles would add weapons that are harder to detect before lift-off.

South Korea’s military condemned the launch as an ‘armed protest’ by North Korea against the start of annual South Korean-US military drills. South Korean President Park Geun-hye said: ‘North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats are not imaginary threats any longer, but they’re now becoming real threats.’

The launch also comes at a time of intensified animosity between the rival Koreas over the defection of a senior North Korean diplomat in London and a US plan to install a sophisticated missile defense system in South Korea.

About 28,500 American troops are based in South Korea and tens of thousands of more in Japan.