North Korea on Tuesday fired a ballistic missile over Japan, its neighbors said, escalating tests of weapons designed to strike key targets in regional U.S. allies amid stalled nuclear diplomacy.
Park Sang-hak, a North Korean defector-turned-activist, holds a placard condemning North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in the border town of Paju, South Korea, Saturday, Oct. 1, 2022. South Korean activists say they clashed with police while launching balloons carrying anti-Pyongyang propaganda materials across the North Korean border, ignoring their government’s plea to stop such activities the North has threatened to respond with “deadly” retaliation. The signs read “Entire humanity denounces Kim Jong Un who threatens to preemptively strike with nuclear missiles.” (Courtesy of Fighters For A Free North Korea via AP)
The Japanese prime minister’s office said at least one missile fired from North Korea flew over Japan and was believed to have landed into the Pacific Ocean.
It said authorities have issued an alert to residents in northeastern regions to evacuate buildings nearby in what was reportedly the first such alert in five years.
FILE – This photo provided by the North Korean government shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un delivers a speech during a parliament in Pyongyang, North Korea on Sept. 8, 2022. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. North Korea on Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2022 fired a ballistic missile over Japan, its neighbors said, escalating tests of weapons designed to strike key targets in regional U.S. allies amid stalled nuclear diplomacy. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP, File)
Trains were temporarily suspended in Japan’s Hokkaido and Aomori regions before their operations were resumed later after a government notice that the North Korean missile appeared to have landed into the Pacific.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said it also detected the launch of a ballistic missile that was fired toward the North’s eastern waters. It gave no further details such as how far the weapon flew.
issi;Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno, center, arrives at the prime minister’s office in Tokyo Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2022. South Korea says North Korea has fired a ballistic missile toward its eastern waters. (Kyodo News via AP)
The launch is the fifth round of weapons test by North Korean in the past 10 days in what was seen as an apparent response to military drills between South Korea and the United States. North Korea views such drills as an invasion rehearsal,
The missiles fired during the past four rounds of launches were short-range and fell in the waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan. Those missiles are capable of hitting targets in South Korea.
