North Korea fires missile over Japan, raising alarm

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea fired a ballistic missile early Tuesday that soared over Japan, the South Korean military said.

It was the second time in four days that the North Korean authorities, defying an escalation in international sanctions and warnings from President Donald Trump, had launched a missile. Three short-range missiles were launched on Saturday.

The missile fired on Tuesday took off from near Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, and flew to the east, according to the South Korean military. It flew 1,677 miles while reaching a height of 341 miles before landing in the sea, the military said.

The Japanese government sent a text alert to citizens about the launch and advised them to take protective cover. A short time later, Yoshihide Suga, Japan’s chief Cabinet secretary, called the launch “an unprecedented, serious and grave threat to our nation.”

The missile flew over Hokkaido Island in northern Japan, South Korean and Japanese officials said. It was the first time a North Korean projectile had crossed over Japan since North Korea launched rockets over Japan in 1998, and again in 2009.

In a statement posted on the Twitter account of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan, the government confirmed that the missile was fired at 5:58 a.m. local time, before breaking into three pieces and landing about 730 miles off the coast of Cape Erimo of Hokkaido about 6:12 a.m. Abe said his government “was prepared to take all the measures to protect people’s lives.”

“We have lodged a firm protest to North Korea. We have requested an urgent meeting of the U.N. Security Council,” he added. “Under the strong Japan-U.S. alliance, we will take all the measures to confirm people’s safety.”

“We will collect information quickly and take all the measures to protect people’s life,” Abe said in a brief statement.

In Washington, the Pentagon said that “we can confirm that the missile launched by North Korea flew over Japan. We are still in the process of assessing this launch.”

As it happened, on the morning of the launch, the Japanese Air Self-Defense Forces were demonstrating a PAC III missile defense system in conjunction with the U.S. Air Force at the base in Yokota, Japan. In a news conference at Yokota, Lt. Gen. Hiroaki Maehara, the commander of the Air Self-Defense Forces, said Japan did not attempt to shoot down the missile because the government did not detect a threat to Japanese territory. After the launch was first detected, the general said the government warned citizens to take cover just in case any parts fell on Japan.

North Korea has conducted more than 80 missile tests since North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, came to power in late 2011, after the death of his father, but it has never sent any of those missiles over Japan.