(Seoul) North Korea fired a ballistic missile on Thursday, triggering a brief alert in the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido whose inhabitants were asked to take shelter as a precaution.
“Evacuate immediately. Evacuate immediately,” the Japanese government ordered in a message, urging residents of Hokkaido to seek shelter in buildings or underground and estimating that the missile would fall around 8 a.m. (7 p.m. Eastern Time).
The Japanese Coast Guard and local officials in Hokkaido, however, advised soon after that there was no danger.
“After confirming the information, there is no possibility of the missile falling on Hokkaido or nearby areas,” said the Asahikawa City Hall in Hokkaido, citing the emergency network of the national government.
The Japanese Coast Guard, for its part, indicated that the fall of the projectile on the territory of Japan “is no longer a possibility”.
The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff announced that “North Korea launched an unidentified ballistic missile towards the East Sea”, the Korean name for the Sea of Japan, without providing further details.
Pyongyang has stepped up arms tests in recent months, heightening tension with Seoul and Washington, which have for their part strengthened their military cooperation and carried out major joint maneuvers in the region.
On Monday, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called for increasing his country’s deterrence capabilities to counter “the escalating maneuvers by US imperialists and treacherous South Korean puppets to unleash a war of aggression according to the official KCNA news agency.
Since March 23, Pyongyang has claimed to have conducted three tests of an underwater nuclear attack drone capable of “producing a large-scale radioactive tsunami”.
The North Korean regime also said it launched an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on March 16.
Last year, North Korea declared itself an “irreversible” nuclear power, thus burying any negotiations on the denuclearization of the country.
And in March, Kim Jong-un ordered his troops to intensify their exercises for “real war”. Washington and Seoul responded with new joint military maneuvers, involving US stealth aircraft.
Pyongyang sees the drills as rehearsals for an invasion of its territory and on Tuesday called them “hysterical,” “simulating all-out war against” North Korea.
South Korea also called North Korea “irresponsible” after Pyongyang cut off communications with Seoul last week.
The North and South militaries communicate twice a day through a specific line, but North Korea has not answered calls since April 7, according to South Korea’s Unification Ministry.
