North Korea launches longest-range missile test yet

North Korea has triggered panic in Japan by firing a ballistic missile an estimated 4,600km (2,860 miles) in the first test launch over the enemy nation in five years.

The intermediate-range rocket, launched earlier this morning, covered “the longest distance ever travelled by a North Korean missile, and reached a height of around 1000km – higher than the International Space Station”, the BBC reported. The test marks a “dramatic escalation” of tensions in the region, said the Japan Times, and “prompted Tokyo to issue a rare alert for residents to take cover”.

Japan’s Defence Minister Yasukazu Hamada told reporters that the missile flew over the northeast prefecture of Aomori before landing in the Pacific Ocean around 3,200km from the mainland. North Korea’s “persistent and escalating launches” are threatening the “peace and security of the region and the globe, and are a serious challenge to the entire international community”, he warned.

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The hermit state is prohibited from testing ballistic and nuclear weapons by the UN, and flying missiles towards or over other countries without warning “also contravenes international norms”, said the BBC.

The launch was the fifth of its kind in just ten days and appears to be “a direct challenge to South Korea’s effort to strengthen its alliance” with the US and Japan, as the three nations conduct joint military drills, said The New York Times.

Following similar combined naval exercises in 2017, North Korea fired two missiles over Japan. Pyongyang followed with a nuclear test a week later, and “recent intelligence has suggested that North Korea is getting ready to test another nuclear weapon”, said the BBC.

As in 2017, this morning’s launch activated Japan’s J-Alert warning system, which issued alerts for people in Aomori, Hokkaido and Tokyo’s Izu islands to take shelter.