North Korea has fired several missiles, including a suspected failed intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), prompting the Japanese government to issue an evacuation warning in the north and central parts of the country. Thursday’s launches are the latest in a series of North Korean weapons tests in recent months that have raised tensions in the region. They come a day after Pyongyang launched more than 20 missiles, the most in a single day, including one that landed off South Korea’s coast for the first time, prompting Seoul to launch air-to-surface missiles.
Despite the government’s initial warning that a missile had flown over Japan, Tokyo later said this was incorrect. Earlier in the morning, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s office issued a warning to residents of northern and central Miyagi, Yamagata and Niigata prefectures, ordering them to take shelter in company buildings or underground. Bullet train services were temporarily suspended in these areas following a missile warning before soon resuming.
Kishida, who said the first missile fired may have been an ICBM, condemned the North Korean tests and said officials were analyzing the details of the weapons. “North Korea’s repeated missile launches are an outrage and absolutely unforgivable,” he added. The United States said the launch was a clear violation of UN resolutions.
“This action underscores the need for all countries to fully implement (North Korea’s) related UN Security Council resolutions to prohibit (North Korea’s) acquisition of the technology and materials needed to conduct these destabilizing tests,” a State Department spokesman said. he said in a statement. Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada said the first missile was fired at around 7:40 a.m. (22:40 GMT Wednesday) on a potential trajectory over Japan but disappeared from radar over the Sea of ​​Japan.
“We detected a launch that showed the potential to fly over Japan, so we launched a J Alert, but after checking the flight, we confirmed that it did not fly over Japan,” Hamada told reporters. The missile flew at an altitude of about 2,000 km (1,200 miles) and had a range of 750 km (460 miles), he said. Such a flight pattern is called a “lofted trajectory”, in which the missile is fired high into space to avoid overflying neighboring countries.
About half an hour after the launch was first reported, the Japanese Coast Guard announced that the missile had fallen. Retired vice admiral and former fleet commander of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force Yoji Koda said the loss of radar tracking of the missile indicated a failed launch.”It means that at some point in the flight path there was some kind of problem with the rocket and it actually fell apart,” he said.
Although the warhead fell into the sea between the Korean peninsula and Japan, the fragments, which would have been traveling at high speed, could still pass through Japan, Koda added. The Sources reported that the first missile passed through stage separation, suggesting it may have been a long-range weapon such as an ICBM. But after the second stage separated, the missile appeared to have failed in normal flight, a South Korean defense source later said. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said a long-range missile was fired from near the North Korean capital of Pyongyang.
About an hour after the first launch, the South Korean military and the Japanese coast guard announced the second and third launches from North Korea. South Korea said both were short-range missiles fired from Kaechon, north of Pyongyang. On October 4, North Korea fired a ballistic missile over Japan for the first time in five years, prompting warnings for residents to take cover. It was the furthest Pyongyang has ever fired a rocket.
North Korea has carried out a record number of weapons launches this year, with the latest coming amid ongoing large-scale military exercises between the United States and South Korea, which Pyongyang says are a “provocation”. The exercises, known as Vigilant Storm, involve around 240 warplanes, including F-35 fighter jets, flying simulated missions around the clock. “Many of North Korea’s missile launches are in direct violation of UN Security Council resolutions, but its current provocation cycle is unlikely to peak until Pyongyang conducts its long-awaited seventh nuclear test,” said Leif-Eric Easely, a professor at Ehwa University. in Seoul, South Korea. “The Kim regime may be relishing international anxiety over another nuclear detonation, believing that greater global attention will accelerate North Korea’s reluctant acceptance as a nuclear-weapon state,” he added. Pyongyang last conducted a nuclear test in 2017.
