North Korea fired a ballistic missile at Japan this morning, the Japanese prime minister’s office said, in a test that alerted residents and forced rail traffic in northeastern regions to be suspended.
According to the Japanese prime minister’s office, at least one missile was fired by North Korea, flew over Japan and is believed to have landed in the Pacific Ocean.
The same source added that the authorities issued an alert to residents of the northeastern regions to leave nearby buildings, in what was the first such alert in five years.
Rail traffic was temporarily suspended in Japan’s Hokkaido and Aomori regions, with operations later resuming after a government warning that the North Korean missile appeared to have landed in the Pacific.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said it also detected the launch of a ballistic missile, which was fired toward the north’s eastern waters, without adding further details such as the distance it traveled.
The missiles fired during the last four tests were short-range and landed in waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan, and these missiles are capable of hitting targets in South Korea.
The launch is North Korea’s fifth round of weapons tests in the past 10 days and has been linked as a response to military exercises between Japan, South Korea and the United States.
On September 30, Seoul, Tokyo and Washington held trilateral anti-submarine exercises for the first time in five years, days in which the naval forces of the United States and South Korea carried out large-scale exercises off the peninsula.
US Vice President Kamala Harris was in Seoul on September 29 and visited the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between the two Koreas, on a trip to highlight Washington’s “unwavering” commitment to defending South Korea against the North.
North Korea, which is subject to UN sanctions for its weapons programs, routinely seeks to maximize the geopolitical impact of its tests, choosing the moment that seems most opportune.
Source: TSF
