SEOUL —
North Korea fired a ballistic missile over Japan for the first time in five
years Tuesday, prompting Tokyo to activate its missile alert system and issue a
rare warning for people to take shelter.
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The latest launch
— which the US branded “reckless and dangerous” — comes in a record year of
sanctions-busting weapons tests by North Korea, which recently revised its laws
to declare itself an “irreversible” nuclear power.
The last time
Pyongyang fired a missile over Japan was in 2017, at the height of a period of
“fire and fury” when North Korean leader Kim Jong Un traded insults with US
president Donald Trump.
South Korea said
the intermediate-range ballistic missile flew some 4,500km — possibly a new
distance record for North Korean tests, which are usually conducted on a lofted
trajectory to avoid flying over neighboring countries.
South Korean
President Yoon Suk-yeol called the launch a “provocation” that violated UN
regulations, and vowed a “stern response”, in a statement issued by his office.
Later Tuesday,
South Korean and US fighter jets carried out a “precision bombing drill” in
response, Seoul’s military said, with South Korean F-15Ks dropping joint direct
attack munitions at a target in the Yellow Sea.
The drills aimed
to demonstrate the allies’ “capabilities to conduct a precision strike at the
origin of provocations”,
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a
statement.
On the same day,
eight Japanese and four US fighter jets carried out a joint drill in airspace
west of the country’s Kyushu region, according to Japan’s Joint Staff.
The forces
“confirmed their readiness and demonstrated domestically and abroad the strong
determination of Japan and the US to deal with any situation”, it said in a
statement.
Japanese Prime
Minister
Fumio Kishida described Pyongyang’s latest test as “an act of
violence”, while EU head Charles Michel called it “an unjustified aggression”.
The US State
Department said the “reckless and dangerous launch” posed “an unacceptable
threat to the Japanese public”.
Japanese Defense
Minister Yasukazu Hamada said the missile could have been a Hwasong-12.
Pyongyang used
Hwasong-12s the last two times it fired missiles over Japan — in August and
September 2017 — tweeted Chad O’Carroll of specialist site NK News.
Japan activated
its missile warning system and urged people in two northern regions of the
country to take shelter early Tuesday.
Nuclear message
The Tuesday test is Pyongyang’s fifth missile launch in 10 days and
sends a clear message to the US, Park Won-gon, professor of North Korean
Studies at Ewha University in Seoul, told AFP.
The missiles
“put South Korea, Japan, and Guam within range”, and show that Pyongyang could
hit US bases with nukes if war broke out on the Korean peninsula, he said.
“As these are
missiles that can carry nuclear warheads, the launch also has a political goal
of once again declaring North Korea a de facto nuclear power and showing its
complete denuclearization is impossible,” Park added.
Seoul, Tokyo,
and Washington have been ramping up joint military drills to counter
Pyongyang’s growing threats, staging the first trilateral anti-submarine drills
in five years Friday.
That came just
days after the US and South Korean navies conducted large-scale exercises.
Such drills
infuriate North Korea, which sees them as rehearsals for an invasion.
US Vice
President Kamala Harris visited Seoul last week and toured the heavily
fortified Demilitarized Zone that divides the Korean peninsula, on a trip to
underscore her country’s “ironclad” commitment to South Korea’s defense.
About 28,500 US
troops are stationed in South Korea to help protect it from the North.
Significant
escalation
Firing a missile over Japan represented a “significant escalation” by
North Korea, said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University.
“Pyongyang is
still in the middle of a provocation and testing cycle,” he added.
South Korean and
US officials have been warning for months that Kim is preparing to conduct
another nuclear test, saying last week that this could happen soon after
Pyongyang’s key ally China holds a Communist Party congress from October 16.
Pyongyang has
tested nuclear weapons six times since 2006, most recently in 2017.
“North Korea
always starts with a low-level provocation and gradually raises the level to
attract media attention from all over the world,” said Go Myong-hyun, a
researcher at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies.
“Their final
provocation will probably be a nuclear test,” he said, adding that North Korea
had taken the unusual and “very aggressive” step of overflying Japan to attract
more attention.
“By launching the
missile over Japan, they are showing that their nuclear threat is not just
targeting South Korea.”
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