The Japan Times:
In an apparent first, North Korea launched a ballistic missile Wednesday morning that fell into waters inside Japan’s exclusive economic zone in the Sea of Japan, South Korean and Japanese authorities said.
The missile was launched from South Hwanghae province in the southwest of the country at around 7:50 a.m., South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
In Tokyo, Defense Minister Gen Nakatani told reporters that the missile flew around 1,000 km and appeared to have landed in Japan’s EEZ 250 km west of Akita Prefecture’s Oga Peninsula.
If confirmed, this would be the first time for such a missile to land in Japan’s EEZ, according to the Defense Ministry. In 1998, a piece of the nose cover of a Taepodong-1 missile that the North launched over Japan fell into the nation’s EEZ in the Pacific Ocean.
The U.S. Strategic Command said it detected the simultaneous launch by the North of two missiles in the morning, one of which exploded immediately after launch.
“The second was tracked over North Korea and into the Sea of Japan,” it said in a statement.
Yonhap news agency, quoting a military source, said the missile was a medium-range Rodong, which has an estimated range of up to 1,300 km, making it capable of reaching as far as Japan.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called the launch a “grave threat to Japan’s security” and a “reckless act that is difficult to forgive.
