North Korean missile overflies Japan
SEOUL. KAZINFORM North Korea on Friday launched a missile that flew over northern Japan before plunging into the Pacific Ocean, EFE reports with reference to the South Korean military.
The still-unidentified missile was launched around 6:30 am from east of Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, according to South Korea's military Joint Chiefs of Staff, adding that the rocket could have reached an altitude of 770 kilometers (477 miles) and flew for a total of some 3,700 kilometers (about 2,300 miles).
The missile overflew the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido and fell into the Pacific Ocean, according to the Japanese government's missile alert system, authorities said.
Japanese government spokesman Yoshihide Suga told reporters that the missile fell into the ocean some 2,000 kilometers from the town of Erimo in eastern Hokkaido without being seen to do so by any ships or aircraft in that area.
The South Korean President's Office immediately called a meeting of that country's National Security Council and troops of the Asian nation undertook a ballistic missile test in the Sea of Japan to the east of the Korean Peninsula in response to the launch.
This is the first missile launch by North Korea since the end of August when the Kim Jong-un regime fired another projectile over northern Japan, and the first weapons test since Pyongyang carried out its sixth, and to date most powerful, nuclear test on Sept. 3.