North Korea Fires Missile Over Japan

Multiple news outlets have reported that North Korea has fired an “unidentified projectile this morning toward the east from the Sunan area in North Korea.”

The reports came from South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff.

BBC reported around 12:30 p.m. HST that local media in Japan said that the missile likely passed over its territory and has warned residents to take shelter.

An update from CNN at 12:55 p.m. HST stated that the South Korean Joint Chiefs said the missile “flew over Japan and toward to the North Pacific Ocean.”

Citing the Japanese government, NHK (Japan’s public broadcaster) added that the missile landed “about 1,240 miles off the cape of Erimo in Hokkaido at around 7:16 a.m. local time and the missile is likely to have reached an altitude of about 478 miles and traveled some 3,700km.”

In a news conference held Friday morning (Thursday afternoon HST local time), Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga criticized the missile launch by North Korea.

Suga said that Japan can never tolerate repeated acts of provocations by the North. He said the government had lodged a protest with North Korea. He said it conveyed the Japanese public’s indignation in the strongest terms.

Suga said Tokyo will respond to the issue at the UN Security Council, in close cooperation with countries including the United States and South Korea.

He said the government will also do all it can to check whether there was any damage from the missile launch and ensure the public’s safety and security.

CNN says the launch comes hours after North Korea responded to the United Nations Security Council’s unanimous approval of additional sanctions by threatening to “sink” Japan and reduce the US mainland into “ash and darkness.” The sanctions were prompted by North Korea’s sixth nuclear test that occurred on Sept. 3 which Pyongyang said was a successful test of a hydrogen bomb. That explosion created a magnitude-6.3 tremor, making it the most powerful weapon Pyongyang has ever tested, the news outlet reported.

Last month, North Korea fired a missile over Japan in what Tokyo called an “unprecedented threat” to the country.

This is a developing story, check back as updates become available.