[Politics ] North Korea launches a ballistic missile that flies over northern Japan, triggering its anti-aircraft alarm

[Mr.Hacker]

North Korea launched this Thursday an "unidentified ballistic missile" into the Sea of Japan (called the East Sea in the two Koreas), according to the South Korean Army, and which led the authorities on the Japanese island of Hokkaido to temporarily activate the alert before the possibility that the projectile hit near it. The projectile was registered after the launch by Japanese radar systems, and the Japanese Ministry of Defense reported that Pyongyang launched "what appears to be a ballistic missile", which immediately pointed out that it could be a long or medium-range weapon. scope. It would be the fifteenth weapons test carried out this year by the North Korean regime, which has responded with several of them to the maneuvers that Seoul and Washington are carrying out these days in the south of the peninsula. North Korea already launched a Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), the longest potential range in its arsenal, on March 16 into the Sea of Japan and, like a Hwasong-15 (the second longest range) which also fired on February 18, the shell landed in waters southwest of the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido.
Precisely, the Hokkaido authorities have activated the anti-aircraft alert shortly after the launch due to the possibility that the projectile impacts around the island, where more than five million people live. The Japanese authorities updated this alert at around 8:20 a.m. local time (11:20 p.m. on Wednesday) noting that there was no longer a possibility that the missile would fall on the island of Hokkaido or in its vicinity. Previously, the company that operates the railway lines in that prefecture, JR Hokkaido, suspended all its operations shortly before 8 a.m. local time while the Japanese Ministry of Transportation alerted ships and planes circulating in the area about the possible impact. of the missile. The Japanese Coast Guard indicated in turn that it expected the impact in the waters around Hokkaido from 8:00 a.m. (23:00 GMT on Wednesday), and later, at 8:19 a.m., indicated that it would have already fallen into the sea at an undetermined point.
In the last month, Pyongyang has responded to the great spring maneuvers in Seoul and Washington -in which Tokyo has also occasionally participated- with various weapons tests, including those of a new nuclear-capable guided drone or torpedo. In turn, the regime displayed its tactical nuclear warheads for the first time, underscoring that it is focused on improving its short-range atomic arsenal for potential use against South Korea or neighboring countries such as Japan, which also host US bases. USA