North Korea fires more missiles, including a possible ICBM, after record day of launches
CBC
North Korea fired multiple ballistic missiles on Thursday, including a possible intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that triggered an alert to residents in parts of central and northern Japan to seek shelter.
Officials in South Korea and Japan said one missile could have been an ICBM, which are North Korea's longest-range weapons and are designed to carry a nuclear warhead to the other side of the planet.
North Korea also launched at least two short-range missiles.
The launches came a day after North Korea fired at least 23 missiles, its most in a single day, including one that landed off South Korea's coast for the first time.
South Korea's Vice Foreign Minister Cho Hyun-dong and U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman strongly condemned the launches as "deplorable, immoral" during a phone call on Thursday, Seoul's Foreign Ministry said.
After the first launch on Thursday, residents of Miyagi, Yamagata and Niigata prefectures in northern Japan were warned on Thursday to seek shelter indoors, according to the J-Alert Emergency Broadcasting System.
Despite warning that a missile had overflown Japan, the government later said that was incorrect.
"We detected a launch that showed the potential to fly over Japan and therefore triggered the J-Alert, but after checking the flight we confirmed that it had not passed over Japan," Defence Minister Yasukazu Hamada told reporters.
Hamada said the government had lost track of that first missile over the Sea of Japan.
It flew to an altitude of about 2,000 kilometres and a range of 750 kilometres, he said. Such a flight pattern is called a "lofted trajectory," in which a missile is fired high into space to avoid flying over neighbouring countries.
In brief comments to reporters a few minutes later, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said North Korea's "repeated missile launches are an outrage and absolutely cannot be forgiven."
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said the long-range missile was launched from near the North Korean capital of Pyongyang.
About an hour after the first launch, South Korea's military and the Japanese coast guard reported the second and third. South Korea said both were short-range missiles fired from Kaechon, north of Pyongyang.
One missile landed less than 64 kilometres off South Korea's coast. South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol described the flights as "territorial encroachment" and Washington denounced them as "reckless."
