North Korea Fired A Missile At Japan For First Time After 5 Years

The missile launched Tuesday splashed down in the Western Pacific

After five years, North Korea fired a missile over Japan, further ratcheting up tensions over Kim Jong Un's nuclear program and prompting a rare public safety warning to be issued by Tokyo.

The missile launched Tuesday splashed down in the Western Pacific about 3,200 kilometres east of Japan, officials in Tokyo said, adding there were no reports of damage.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida condemned the launch and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol warned of a "resolute response."

The test represented the longest-range weapon fired by North Korea since May and hearkens back to the autumn of 2017 when Kim's regime unleashed its largest barrage of long-range rockets and detonated a nuclear bomb.

That prompted then-US President Donald Trump to threaten to "destroy" North Korea and led the United Nations to impose some of its toughest sanctions to punish Kim.

Taking notes from the launch, North Korea launched the intermediate-range ballistic missile at 7:23 a.m. from Jagang province, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said Tuesday, adding that the rocket passed over Japan. It flew about 4,500 kilometres (2,800 miles) and reached an altitude of 970 km, the JCS said. That's more than twice as high as the International Space Station.

"The United States strongly condemns the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's dangerous and reckless decision to launch a long-range ballistic missile over Japan," US National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said in a statement, using North Korea's formal name. "This action is destabilizing and shows the DPRK's blatant disregard for United Nations Security Council resolutions and international safety norms."

North Korea likely fired a Hwasong-12, Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada said, referring to an intermediate-range missile with a range of about 4,500 km. Joseph Dempsey, a weapons expert at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said on Twitter that this was likely the missile's fifth successful test.