The launches came a day after North Korea fired at least 23 missiles, the most in a single day, including one that landed off the coast of South Korea for the first time. Residents of Miyagi, Yamagata and Niigata prefectures in northern Japan were warned Thursday to seek shelter indoors, according to the J-Alert Emergency Broadcasting System. Despite warning that a missile had overshot Japan, the government later said it was a mistake. “We detected a launch that showed the possibility of flying over Japan and therefore triggered the J-Alert, but after checking the flight we confirmed that it had not passed over Japan,” Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada told reporters. Hamada said the government lost track of the first missile over the Sea of Japan. A news report using archive footage relaying details of what turned out to be multiple launches is shown on a screen at a Seoul train station on Thursday. (Jung Yeon-je/AFP/Getty Images) It flew at an altitude of about 2,000 kilometers and a range of 750 kilometers, he said. One such flight plan is called a “high orbit,” in which a rocket is launched high into space to avoid flying over neighboring countries.
An “outrage” begins: Japan
In brief comments to reporters minutes later, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said that “North Korea’s repeated missile launches are outrageous and absolutely unforgivable.” North Korea launched a record number of missiles in a single day on Wednesday — followed by additional launches on Thursday. (Kim Hong-ji/AFP/Getty Images) Yonhap news agency reported that the first missile was in a separation stage, suggesting it may be a long-range weapon such as an intercontinental ballistic missile. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the long-range missile was fired near North Korea’s capital Pyongyang. About an hour after the first launch, the South Korean military and the Japanese coast guard reported a second and third launch from North Korea. South Korea said both were short-range missiles fired from Kaechon, north of Pyongyang. After North Korea’s launches on Wednesday, including a missile that landed less than 40 miles from South Korea’s coast, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol described the flights as a “territorial encroachment” and Washington denounced them as “reckless ». South Korea issued rare air strike warnings and fired its own missiles in response after Wednesday’s barrage. The launches came after Pyongyang asked the United States and South Korea to halt large-scale military exercises, saying such “military provocations and provocations can no longer be tolerated.” The allies are holding one of the largest air exercises ever, with hundreds of South Korean and US warplanes, including F-35 fighters, flying simulation missions around the clock. On October 4, North Korea fired a ballistic missile over Japan for the first time in five years, prompting a warning for residents there to take cover. It was the farthest missile North Korea had ever fired.
