Japan’s evacuation drills over N Korea attack fears

Hundreds of residents of a small Japanese coastal town took part in an evacuation drill yesterday as fears grow that a North Korean missile could hit the country.

The drill in Abu, about 800km (500miles) west of Tokyo, facing the Sea of Japan, simulated a ballistic missile attack in the nearby mountains of Yamaguchi prefecture, which hosts a major United States Marine Corps air station, a disaster agency official said.

It came less than a week after the nuclear-armed North test-fired a shortrange projectile which fell near Japan in defiance of UN sanctions warnings and US threats of military action.