North Korea launches missile towards Japan
Pyongyang’s longest-range ICBM yet lands in waters off Japan as US defence chief talks of ‘global threat’
North Korea launched what was thought to be its longest-range missile test yet last night. The missile flew for 620 miles, for a period of 53 minutes, before landing in the sea off the coast of Japan. Donald Trump, the US president, said in response that the US would “take care of it”.
NORTH KOREA fired an intercontinental ballistic missile into waters off Japan last night in what was believed to be its longest-range test yet, escalating already high tensions with the US.
Kim Jong-un’s rogue regime launched the missile, its first for more than two months, in the middle of the night and it flew for around 620 miles, reaching an altitude of 2,800 miles, and splashing down 53 minutes later in the Sea of Japan.
The missile ended up within Japan’s exclusive economic zone, which extends 200 nautical miles from its coast.
In response, Donald Trump, the US president, said: “It is a situation that we will handle. We will take care of it.” He offered no further details.
James Mattis, the US defence secretary, said the missile reached a greater altitude than any North Korea has previously tested and showed North Korea wanted to threaten “anywhere in the world basically” and “certainly the US”.
Mr Trump spoke to Sinzo Abe, the Japanese prime minister, after the test and the pair agreed China must play an increased role in tackling the crisis.
In a phone call, the leaders “agreed to strengthen our deterrence capability against the North Korean threat”, said Yasutoshi Nishimura, Japan’s deputy chief cabinet secretary.
Mr Abe described the launch as a “violent act” that “can never be tolerated”, while Moon Jae-in, the South Korean president, said it was a “serious threat” to global peace. Boris Johnson, the Foreign Secretary called on North Korea to “change course”.
“This is not the path to security and prosperity for the North Korean people. The DPRK regime must change course,” Mr Johnson said.
The UN Security Council has scheduled an emergency meeting for today to discuss the provocation.
The test came just days after Mr Trump added North Korea to America’s list of state sponsors of terror and unveiled new sanctions targeting its shipping, moves Pyongyang had called a “serious provocation and violent infringement”. It came weeks after Mr Trump returned from a tour of Asia where he sought to rally support for clamping down on North Korea’s economy.
Hours before the launch, officials in Hawaii said wailing sirens last heard more than 20 years ago would sound for 60 seconds at more than 400 locations on the first working day of each month, starting in December.
In the event of a real attack, the sirens would give Hawaiians 12 to 15 minutes of warning before impact.
Richard Rapoza, Hawaii’s emergency management spokesman, said: “We stopped using them in the midnineties after the Cold War ended.”
The new siren tests were to be accompanied by public service announcements urging residents to “get inside, stay inside and stay tuned”.
Mr Rapoza said a single 150-kiloton weapon detonated over Pearl Harbor, on the main island of Oahu, would be expected to kill 18,000 people and injure 120,000.
After firing missiles at a rate of up to three per month since April, North Korea had paused its launches since Sept 15, when one passed over Japan’s northern Hokkaido island.