Prime Minister of JapanFumio Kishida, described this Monday as “barbaric” Pyongyang’s latest launch of a ballistic missilewhich flew over the north of the Japanese archipelago and led the authorities to activate the civil alert in the area.
“It is a barbaric act and I express my firm condemnation of North Korea therefore,” Kishida told local media after the new weapons test in the neighboring country, which took place on Tuesday.
The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) detailed in a statement that it was presumably an “intermediate-range ballistic missile” launched from Jagang province, located in the north of the neighboring country and adjacent to China.
The missile fell in Pacific waters and outside the exclusive economic space of Japanaccording to the Ministry of Defense, which for the moment has not detected any damage to aircraft or boats in the area.
The Japanese authorities added that the missile hit about 3,000 kilometers east of the archipelago, after traveling a total distance of 4,000 kilometers and reaching a maximum height of 1,000 km.
Kishida ordered national authorities to collect all available information on the launch in cooperation with his allies Seoul and Washington, and called an emergency meeting of the National Security Council to discuss the situation.
The trajectory of the missile over the northern Japanese prefectures of Hokkaido and Aomori triggered the activation of the civil alert system in those areas, through which the population is urged to take refuge from the possible impact of the projectile.
This is the first time that Japan has activated this alert for a missile since September 15, 2017, when another North Korean projectile flew over Hokkaido.
North Korea it has made four other rounds of missile launches since September 25, all of them with short-range ballistic projectiles, so today’s test would be the longest range of its latest test series.
UN urges North Korea to denuclearize the country
The United Nations has urged North Korea to denuclearize the country and reverse the approved law that allows the use of nuclear weapons in a preventive manner and not only in response to a foreign attack.
Asked about the recent approval by the North Korean Supreme People’s Assembly (SPA) of legislation that would ‘de facto’ convert the country into a Nuclear State, the spokesman for the UN Secretary General, Stéphane Dujarric, has conveyed the concern of the United Nations .
“I can tell you that the secretary general (António Guterres) is deeply concerned about the adoption of the law on the policy of North Korea regarding nuclear forces”, Dujarric detailed during a press conference.
(With information from Europa Press and AFP)