North Korea fired several ballistic missiles on Thursday, including one that triggered an alert for residents in parts of central and northern Japan to seek shelter, the latest in a record year of missile tests by the nuclear-armed North.
The launches came a day after North Korea fired at least 23 missiles, the most in a single day, including one that landed off the coast of South Korea for the first time.
Residents of Miyagi, Yamagata and Niigata prefectures in northern Japan were warned Thursday to seek shelter indoors, according to the J-Alert Emergency Broadcasting System.
Despite warning that a missile had flown over Japan, the government later said that was incorrect.
“We detected a launch that showed the potential to fly over Japan and therefore triggered the J alert, but after checking the flight we confirmed that it had not passed over Japan,” the minister told reporters. Defense, Yasukazu Hamada.
Hamada said the government had lost track of the first missile over the Sea of Japan.
A news report using stock footage relayed details of what turned out to be multiple launches, seen on a screen at a train station in Seoul on Thursday. (Jung Yeon-je/AFP/Getty Images)
It flew at an altitude of about 2,000 kilometers and a range of 750 kilometers, he said. This flight pattern is called an “elevated trajectory,” in which a missile is launched into space to avoid overflying neighboring countries.
Launches ‘an outrage’: Japan
In brief comments to reporters a few minutes later, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said that “North Korea’s repeated missile launches are an outrage and absolutely unforgivable.”
North Korea launched a record number of missiles in a single day on Wednesday, followed by additional launches on Thursday. (Kim Hong-ji/AFP/Getty Images)
Yonhap news agency reported that the first missile went through a stage separation, suggesting it could be a long-range weapon like an intercontinental ballistic missile.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the long-range missile was launched from near the North Korean capital of Pyongyang.
About an hour after the first launch, the South Korean military and Japanese coast guard reported a second and third launch from North Korea. South Korea said both were short-range missiles fired from Kaechon, north of Pyongyang.
After North Korea’s launches on Wednesday, including a missile that landed less than 40 miles (64 kilometers) off South Korea’s coast, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol called the flights a “territorial invasion” and Washington denounced them as “reckless.”
South Korea issued rare air strike warnings and launched its own missiles in response after Wednesday’s attack.
The launches came after Pyongyang demanded the US and South Korea halt large-scale military exercises, saying such “military recklessness and provocation can no longer be tolerated”.
The allies have conducted one of the largest air exercises in history, with hundreds of South Korean and US warplanes, including F-35 fighter jets, flying simulated missions around the clock.
On October 4, North Korea fired a ballistic missile over Japan for the first time in five years, prompting a warning for residents there to take cover. It was the furthest North Korea had ever fired a missile.