North Korea fires ballistic missile over Japan

North Korea fired a ballistic missile over Japan for the first time in five years Tuesday, prompting Tokyo to activate its missile alert system and issue a rare warning for people to take shelter.

The latest launch -- which the United States branded “reckless and dangerous” -- comes in a record year of sanctions-busting weapons tests by North Korea, which recently revised its laws to declare itself an “irreversible” nuclear power.

The last time Pyongyang fired a missile over Japan was in 2017, at the height of a period of “fire and fury” when North Korean leader Kim Jong Un traded insults with US president Donald Trump.

South Korea said the intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) flew some 4,500 kilometres (2,800 miles) -- possibly a new distance record for North Korean tests, which are usually conducted on a lofted trajectory to avoid flying over neighbouring countries.

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol called the launch a “provocation” that violated UN regulations, and vowed a “stern response”, in a statement issued by his office. Later Tuesday, South Korean and US fighter jets carried out a “precision bombing drill” in response, Seoul’s military said, with South Korean F-15Ks dropping joint direct attack munitions (JDAMs) at a target in the Yellow Sea.

The drills aimed to demonstrate the allies’ “capabilities to conduct a precision strike at the origin of provocations”, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.

On the same day, eight Japanese and four US fighter jets carried out a joint drill in airspace west of the country’s Kyushu region, according to Japan’s Joint Staff. The forces “confirmed their readiness and demonstrated domestically and abroad the strong determination of Japan and the United States to deal with any situation”, it said in a statement.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida described Pyongyang’s latest test as “an act of violence”, while European Union head Charles Michel called it “an unjustified aggression”. The US State Department said the “reckless and dangerous launch” posed “an unacceptable threat to the Japanese public”.

Japanese Defence Minister Yasukazu Hamada said the missile could have been a Hwasong-12. Pyongyang used Hwasong-12s the last two times it fired missiles over Japan -- in August and September 2017 -- tweeted Chad O’Carroll of specialist site NK News. Japan activated its missile warning system and urged people in two northern regions of the country to take shelter early Tuesday.