News North Korea fires three ballistic missiles across Japan

No damage from the missiles was reported, the government said. It had earlier urged residents in some northeastern and central Japan prefectures to remain indoors. Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada said the first missile was launched around 7:40 a.m. on a potential trajectory over Japan, but it disappeared from radar over the Sea of Japan.

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The missile in question stoked concern in Tokyo, triggering a rare warning from Japan's J-Alert emergency broadcasting system covering the prefectures of Niigata, Yamagata and Miyagi. But despite an initial Japanese government warning that the missile had overflown the country, Tokyo later reversed course, saying it had, in fact, lost track of the first missile over the Sea of Japan. "We detected a launch that had showed the potential to fly over Japan, and therefore triggered the J-Alert," Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada told a news conference. "But, after checking the flight, we confirmed that it had not passed over Japan." Hamada said the ministry had estimated that the first missile fired had traveled 750 kilometers, but had hit a maximum altitude of 2,000 km. Such firings, known as "lofted" launches, have been conducted by the North to avoid overflying neighboring nations and to test the resilience of warheads. South Korea's military also confirmed the launches, saying that the first missile appeared to be of an ICBM, the South's Yonhap news agency reported. It said it believed the two other launches were of short-range ballistic missiles. Yonhap, quoting an unidentified source, earlier reported that the first missile had gone through a stage separation, suggesting it may have been a longer-range weapon.

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North Korea fired an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) and two short-range ones toward the East Sea on Thursday, South Korea's military said. The ICBM was launched from the Sunan area in Pyongyang at around 7:40 a.m. and flew about 760 kilometres at an apogee of around 1,920 km at a top speed of Mach 15, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS). Following the second stage separation, however, the missile seems to have failed in normal flight, a defence source said later.

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The launches came after North Korea fired at least 23 missiles on Wednesday, the most in a single day, including one that landed off South Korea's coast for the first time. South Korea issued rare air raid warnings and launched its own missiles in response after Wednesday's barrage. On Thursday, the South's transportation ministry announced that air routes had reopened in the area where the missile had fallen, having been closed for around 24 hours. After the first launch on Thursday, residents of Miyagi, Yamagata and Niigata prefectures in Japan were warned to seek shelter indoors, according to the J-Alert Emergency Broadcasting System. "We detected a launch that showed the potential to fly over Japan and therefore triggered the J Alert, but after checking the flight we confirmed that it had not passed over Japan," Hamada told reporters. The first missile flew to an altitude of about 2,000 kilometres (1,242 miles) and a range of 750 km, he said. Such a flight pattern is called a "lofted trajectory," in which a missile is fired high into space to avoid flying over neighbouring countries.

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North Korea fired off a suspected intercontinental ballistic missile on Friday, Tokyo said, with the weapon believed to have fallen into waters 210 kilometers off Hokkaido. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, speaking to reporters from the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Bangkok, said the missile was believed to be an ICBM and had landed inside Japan's exclusive economic zone, which extends 200 nautical miles (370 km) from its coast.

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