Seoul CNN –
Japan urged residents to take shelter early Tuesday morning after North Korea fired a ballistic missile without warning over the country for the first time in five years, in a major and potentially dangerous escalation of recent tests of ‘weapons of the regime of Kim Jong-un.
The launch, which prompted an immediate reaction from Tokyo and Seoul, comes amid a series of missile tests, with five launches in the past 10 days, and follows renewed military exercises between the United States and its regional allies.
The intermediate-range missile was launched from Mupyong-ri near North Korea’s central border with China at around 7:23 a.m. local time, according to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) . It flew about 4,600 kilometers (2,858 miles) for 20 minutes at an estimated maximum altitude of 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) over Japan’s Tohoku region before crashing into the Pacific Ocean, about 3,000 kilometers (1,864 miles) offshore of the country, Japanese authorities said. .
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida strongly condemned the launch, calling North Korea’s recent ballistic missile launches “outrageous” in comments to reporters at his official residence.
Tuesday’s launch is the country’s 23rd missile test this year, involving both ballistic and cruise missiles.
There were no reports of damage to aircraft or ships near the missile’s path, but the unannounced missile triggered a rare J alert, a system designed to inform the public of emergencies and threats in Japan, according to Japanese authorities. .
In these emergencies, alerts are sent via sirens, community radios and individual smartphone users. Alerts were sent around 7:30 a.m. local time on Tuesday to people in Aomori Prefecture, Hokkaido and Tokyo’s Izu and Ogasawara islands, according to Japanese officials.
A tweet posted by Japan’s prime minister’s office urged residents to take shelter in buildings and “not to approach anything suspicious found and to contact the police or fire department immediately.”
Other governments were quick to denounce the launch, with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol calling it a “reckless” provocation and saying North Korea would face a decisive response from the South’s military -Korean and its allies.
The White House also “strongly condemned” the test, with National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson calling it a “destabilizing” action that shows the “flagrant disregard for United Nations Security Council resolutions and international security standards” of North Korea.
Kim Seung-kyum, chief of the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), and Paul LaCamera, commander of US Forces Korea, held a meeting after the launch and reaffirmed that the combined defense posture will be further strengthened against any threats and provocations from North Korea, the JCS said.
The US Indo-Pacific Command also released a statement saying US commitments to the defense of Japan and South Korea “remain uncompromising”.
Kim Dong-yub, a professor at South Korea’s Kyungnam University, said initial details of the flight suggested the missile fired Tuesday was likely a Hwasong-12, the same type of missile last launched in January also from Mupyong-ri
“This missile launch appears to be part of a series of responses by North Korea against the deployment of the USS Ronald Reagan to Busan. North Korea has conducted several launches of short-range ballistic missiles, and this is the North Korea’s way of showing its dissatisfaction and demonstration of threat against the deployment of US strategic assets on the Korean Peninsula,” Kim said.
Tuesday’s launch could herald an escalation in provocations by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, experts told CNN.
“Pyongyang is still in the midst of a cycle of provocation and testing and is likely to wait until after the Chinese Communist Party Congress in mid-October to conduct an even more significant test,” said Leif- Eric Easley, Associate Professor of International Studies at Ewha Womans University. in seoul
“The Kim regime is developing weapons such as tactical nuclear warheads and submarine-launched ballistic missiles as part of a long-term strategy to overtake South Korea in an arms race and create tensions among US allies.”
Four previous missile launches occurred in the space of a week in late September and early October, at the same time that US Vice President Kamala Harris made an official visit to Japan and South Korea, and while the US, Japanese and South Korean navies were conducting joint exercises.
The North Korean tests also come as international attention remains firmly focused on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and both Moscow and Beijing appear reluctant to side with the West to further censure Pyongyang .
In May, Russia and China vetoed a U.S.-drafted U.N. Security Council resolution to strengthen sanctions on North Korea over its weapons tests, in a vote the U.S. said was likely to fuel Pyongyang’s program to develop nuclear-capable missile systems.
Washington and the International Atomic Energy Agency have warned this year that North Korea could be preparing for a nuclear test, which would be its first since 2017.
Jeffrey Lewis, director of the Middlebury Institute’s East Asia Nonproliferation Program, drew a connection between the missile tests and a possible nuclear test.
“North Korea will continue to conduct missile tests until the current round of modernization is completed. I don’t think a nuclear (test) explosion is far behind,” he told CNN.