North Korea Launches Missile Over Japan....

The single intermediate-range missile, which ultimately fell into the Pacific Ocean, had prompted Japan to warn its citizens to take shelter.

SEOUL—North Korea flew a missile over Japan for the first time since 2017, Seoul and Tokyo officials said, a significant escalation that led to Japan issuing warnings for citizens to take shelter.

A single intermediate-range missile was launched at 7:23 a.m. local time on Tuesday from the North’s Chagang province, bordering China, South Korea’s military said. The missile flew about 2,800 miles, hitting an altitude of roughly 603 miles, according to Japanese and South Korean assessments.

The Japanese government issued warnings for citizens living in the projected path of the missile to take cover as it flew for roughly 22 minutes past northern Japan before falling into the Pacific Ocean, Tokyo officials said. North Korea has launched a series of short-range weapons in recent weeks, but Tuesday’s launch appears to be its longest-range launch since testing an intercontinental ballistic missile in May.

“This is an outrageous act following the recent repeated launches of ballistic missiles and we strongly denounce it,” Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida spoke to the media in Tokyo following North Korea’s missile launch Tuesday.PHOTO: KYODO NEWS/ASSOCIATED PRESS

South Korean President Yook Suk-yeol, following the Tuesday launch, warned of a resolute response from the international community and the country’s allies. South Korea’s National Security Council after an emergency meeting called the test a serious provocation that threatened peace on the Korean Peninsula and beyond.

The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said the missile test doesn’t pose a threat to U.S. personnel, territory or allies, but condemned the launch and called on North Korea to “refrain from further unlawful and destabilizing acts.”

North Korea last launched an intermediate-range ballistic missile in January. The potential range of such weapons can’t stretch to the U.S. mainland, though they are believed sufficient enough to reach the American military bases in Guam, which is about 2,000 miles from North Korea, weapons experts have said.

The January launch of the “Hwasong-12” missile took an unusually lofty trajectory before landing in the waters between Korea and Japan. But that missile test didn’t fly over Japan, a degree of restraint that North Korea’s state media seemed to acknowledge in its report of the launch by stating the flight path had been decided “in consideration of the security of neighboring countries.”

The Tuesday launch traveled at about half the altitude of the January test, though it traveled about five times farther in distance. North Korean state media didn’t have immediate comment.

 

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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said the country’s nuclear missiles are ready to be used in potential military conflicts with the U.S. and South Korea, state media reported. The Kim regime has conducted a record number of weapons launches this year. Photo: KCNA via KNS/AFP

The Kim Jong Un regime has conducted more than 20 missile tests in 2022, more than in any prior year. The tests include intermediate-range and intercontinental ballistic missiles that are capable of striking the U.S. mainland.

North Korea in 2017 launched two missiles that passed over Japan and landed in the Pacific Ocean, prompting similar alerts to citizens.

As workers and students started their day on Tuesday, residents in three Japanese prefectures were warned to take cover through a system that sends messages to cellphones. “Missile launch,” the alert read. “Please take shelter in a building or underground?”

A news program reporting on North Korea’s missile launch on view at the Seoul Railway Station in South Korea on Tuesday.PHOTO: LEE JIN-MAN/ASSOCIATED PRESS

North Korea has fired longer-range weapons from its Chagang Province before, including an ICBM in July 2017. In a February report, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Washington, D.C.-based think tank, said a secret missile base intended to house long-range ballistic missiles was operating in Chagang Province.

The latest launch was North Korea’s fifth weapons test in 10 days, amid Vice President Kamala Harris’s visit to the region and trilateral anti-submarine exercises between the U.S., Japan and South Korea. The prior four tests involved short-range ballistic missiles, including one on Saturday.

Pyongyang has completed preparations for its first nuclear test since September 2017, according to U.S. and South Korean officials. The test could come between the end of China’s coming National Congress meetings next month and the U.S. midterm elections in November, South Korea’s spy agency told lawmakers last week.

Last month, North Korea declared its nuclear status “irreversible,” rejecting denuclearization talks with the U.S. and South Korea. Pyongyang’s rubber-stamp parliament passed a new law allowing pre-emptive nuclear strikes if the leadership comes under attack. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un declared he would never abandon nuclear weapons to counter the U.S.