North Korea fired an unidentified missile into the Sea of Japan (called the East Sea in the two Koreas) on Monday, according to the South Korean Army, which is the fifth such launch in the last ten days. The Japanese authorities have issued an alert to the population, asking them to take refuge in buildings “or underground”. The launch takes place after Pyongyang carried out another four rounds of tests with short-range ballistic missiles since the 24th, in a new escalation of tensions on the peninsula that coincided with the joint military exercises by Washington and Seoul and with the visit to the South of the US Vice President, Kamala Harris.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s office said on Twitter that “a projectile that appears to be a North Korean ballistic missile has probably flown over Japan.” The apparent shooting from Pyongyang prompted a rare alert from the Japanese government asking its citizens to take shelter “inside buildings or underground.”
The missile launched today by North Korea in its latest weapons test flew over the north of the Japanese archipelago, as announced by the Japanese authorities, who activated the alert in that area due to the trajectory of the projectile. The missile was fired around 7:30 a.m. local time on Tuesday towards the Sea of Japan, according to the South Korean Army, while the Japanese government indicated that it has fallen at an unspecified point in the sea, after having activated the civil alert in the Hokkaido and Aomori prefectures, the northernmost of the archipelago.
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