Pyongyang fires another missile, escalating crisis
SEOUL — North Korea fired a ballistic missile over Japan on Friday, a bold test that defied the new sanctions resolution adopted by the U.N. Security Council this week as well as repeated warnings from around the world that the country should stop raising tensions.
The missile blasted off from near the Sunan International Airport north of Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, and flew about 2,300 miles, flying over northern Japan, the South Korean military said in a statement. The missile reached a maximum altitude of 478 miles.
In Japan, an alert was issued on television and via cell phones, warning people to take shelter inside a building or underground. The Japanese government said the missile landed in waters about 1,240 miles east of the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido.
In Tokyo, Yoshihide Suga, chief Cabinet secretary to Japn Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, said that Japan “absolutely cannot accept the repeated outrageous provocative actions by North Korea” and lodged an official protest with the North, “conveying the strong fury of the Japanese people as well as condemning the action with the strongest words.”
South Korean officials said they were still analyzing the flight data to determine what type of missile was launched. It flew farther than any other missile North Korea has fired.
As the missile blasted off at 6:57 a.m. Friday, South Korea almost simultaneously launched its Hyunmoo-2 ballistic missile off its east coast in a simulated pre-emptive attack, South Korean defense officials said.
President Moon Jae-in approved the South Korean missile launching and ordered his national security council to meet to discuss the latest North Korean missile test.
The U.S. Pacific Command tracked what it assessed was a single North Korean intermediate-range ballistic missile overflying northern Japan and landing in the Pacific Ocean east of Japan.