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North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un (mid-October)
Photo: KCNA/KNS/AFP
A new day, a new test: According to Japanese information, North Korea has once again launched three ballistic missiles, one of which disappeared from radar over the Japan Sea.
This was announced by the government in Tokyo on Thursday.
She corrected initial statements that the first North Korean missile had flown over Japan again.
One of the missiles may have been an ICBM, the governments in South Korea and Japan said.
The US State Department also spoke up and condemned the test.
The shooting down is a "clear violation of several resolutions of the UN Security Council," said US State Department spokesman Ned Price on Wednesday (local time).
The action shows the danger North Korea's illegal WMD and ballistic missile programs pose to its neighbors and the region, as well as to international peace and security.
Together with the international community, the United States called on North Korea to refrain from further provocations and to engage in dialogue, it said.
The commitment of the USA to the defense of South Korea and Japan remains "iron".
Tokyo said there was no damage in Japan from the missiles.
Residents in some northeastern and central Japan prefectures had previously been asked to remain in their homes for safety.
Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada said the first missile was launched around 7:40 a.m. local time.
The potential trajectory could have sent the missile flying over Japan.
But she disappeared from the radar over the Japan Sea.
The reason for the disappearance from the radar is still under investigation, it said.
On October 4, a North Korean missile flew over Japan.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida called North Korea's repeated missile tests "unacceptable."
Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier is currently in Japan and wanted to fly to Seoul on Thursday evening (local time).
Missile landed in South Korean territorial waters
The new North Korean missile tests were seen in South Korea in response to the largest air force exercise by South Korean and US forces in several years.
North Korea had accused the two countries of "reckless" military provocations and threatened countermeasures.
The multi-day exercises in South Korea will continue until Friday.
Only yesterday, Wednesday, the internationally isolated regime of dictator Kim Jong Un fired more than ten rockets of different types on the east and west coasts, according to the South Korean military.
South Korea responded by launching its own missiles from fighter jets – some into the open sea north of the border line.
A spokesman for the South Korean Ministry of Defense justified the measure with the fact that a North Korean short-range missile had previously crossed the maritime border line in the east.
It is said to have landed in the sea about 60 kilometers off the South Korean coast.
This was the first time a North Korean missile had landed near South Korean territorial waters since the end of the Korean War in the 1950s.
jok/dpa