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Yesterday, North Korea fired an IRBM across northern Japan; it was the longest test shot ever and the first time since 2017 that a missile crossed the Japanese archipelago.
Paywall alert:
The ensuing missile alert shocked northern Japan, where trains were stopped.
The first launch over Japan in five years is part of a clear escalation by the isolated nation ahead of the Chinese Communist Party's congress later this month and U.S. midterm elections in November. South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said the medium-range missile was fired at 7:23 a.m. from Mupyeong-ri in northern Chagang province and travelled about 4,500 kilometres with a maximum altitude of 970 km, the JCS said. Japan's Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada said the missile passed over the northern Tohoku region and flew 4,600 km -- the longest horizontal distance for a projectile launched by the country. Jeffrey Lewis, a professor with expertise in East Asia nonproliferation at the U.S.-based Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, tweeted: "Based on the range, apogee and flight time, the North Korea missile was a Hwasong-12 IRBM."
Paywall alert:
North Korea fires missile over Japan in farthest-ever test
Japan's Kishida, South Korea's Yoon slam Pyongyang's fifth launch in 10 days
asia.nikkei.com
The ensuing missile alert shocked northern Japan, where trains were stopped.
North Korea's firing of a ballistic missile, which crossed over Japan on Tuesday for the first time in five years, is likely to compel Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to contemplate how to tackle military provocations by Pyongyang. As the two Asian countries do not maintain diplomatic relations, it is believed Tokyo has not had contact with Pyongyang for years, given that they have been at odds over the unresolved abductions of Japanese nationals by North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s. Japanese lawmakers lambasted the latest missile launch by North Korea, with Toshimitsu Motegi, the secretary general of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, saying Japan needs to beef up its defence capabilities.
N. Korea's missile over Japan may prod Kishida to review strategy - The Mainichi
TOKYO (Kyodo) -- North Korea's firing of a ballistic missile, which crossed over Japan on Tuesday for the first time in five years, is likely to compe
mainichi.jp