North Korea launched a medium-range ballistic missile and two short-range projectiles into the Sea of Japan early Thursday, triggering air alerts in several northern prefectures on the Japanese island of Honshu, Japanese authorities said.
The Japanese Defense Ministry has revealed that North Korea has launched a medium-range missile at around 7.42 local time (23.42 Spanish peninsular time) that has fallen into the Sea of Japan, according to NHK.
At first, the defense ministry announced that the missile had flown over the Japanese archipelago, but later rectified that this had not been the case because the missile had failed and would have fallen somewhere in the Sea of Japan after having flown 1,920 kilometers.
However, following the missile launch, the government sent instant alerts to the citizens of the prefectures of Miyagi, Yamagata and Niigata, all in the north of Honshu, the main island of the Japanese archipelago.
However, two other short-range missiles were detected by the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff, which said they were fired at 8:39 a.m. (00:39 a.m. Spanish time) from the North Korean town of Kaechon, south of Pyongyang.
JAPAN, SOUTH KOREA AND USA CONDEMN LAUNCHES Senior officials from Japan, South Korea and the United States have described North Korea’s missile launches as «a clear and serious challenge to the international community».
In response to the three missiles fired Thursday, Japanese Foreign Ministry Director-General Takehiro Funakoshi has spoken with U.S. State Department Special Representative for North Korea Sung Kim and South Korean Foreign Ministry Director-General Kim Gunn, NHK reported.
The three representatives have maintained that «the series of ballistic missile launches» on Tuesday and Wednesday are provocations of «unprecedented» frequency and form, and that they pose «a serious and imminent threat to the security of the region, including Japan and South Korea.»
They have also agreed to «further» promote security cooperation between their countries, reaffirming that they will continue to work closely together to strengthen the implementation of sanctions and responses in the UN Security Council.
These launches come a day after North Korea launched nearly 20 missiles into the Sea of Japan, one of which flew over the maritime demarcation line between the two Koreas for the first time since the war between the two countries, setting off anti-aircraft sirens on one of the South Korean islands.
In this context, last October 4, Pyongyang launched a ballistic missile that fell into the Pacific Ocean and flew over Japanese territory, an event that had not happened since 2017 and which activated the alert in Japan.
The offensive by Pyongyang further escalates tensions in the region, after North Korea has in recent weeks launched dozens of ballistic missiles in tests banned by UN Security Council resolutions, in response to the US-North Korean military maneuvers that it considers an invasion rehearsal.
Washington, as well as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), have shared their evidence that North Korea is «likely» to conduct a nuclear missile test, its first since 2017.
