North Korea’s new missile has raised alarm in Japan

A missile fired by North Korea on Thursday did not fly over Japan, Japan’s defense minister said, despite officials warning residents in some areas.

• Read more: North Korea launched at least 17 missiles

Early Thursday morning, a special alert system was activated and residents of Miyagi, Niigata and Yamagata regions in northern Japan received warnings to shelter in place or stay at home.

The prime minister’s office initially said a missile had passed over Japan at 7:48 a.m. (2248 GMT Wednesday), but the defense minister later clarified that the warning was issued in error.

“It was detected that the missile was capable of flying over the Japanese archipelago and a special warning was issued, but after verifying this information, we confirmed that the missile did not cross the Japanese archipelago, but disappeared over the sea of ​​Japan,” Minister Yasukazu Hamada told reporters.

We are investigating the reason behind his disappearance.

Due to the alert in Japan, the bullet train system was temporarily suspended in some areas.

The day after another North Korean missile flew over Japan on October 4, the day after the communist regime in Pyongyang launched a barrage of missiles and artillery toward its neighbor, South Korea.

“(North Korean) barrage of missiles day after day is an outrage and cannot be tolerated,” Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters on Thursday.