N.Korea intensifies global security threat, fires missile over Japan

Raising concern over global security, North Korea early Friday fired missiles over Japan which landed far out in the Pacific. This followed recent test of nuclear weapon by the country.

The North’s launch comes a day after the North threatened to sink Japan and reduce the United States to “ashes and darkness” for supporting a U.N. Security Council resolutio

North Korea accuses the United States, which has 28,500 troops in South Korea, of planning to invade and regularly threatens to destroy it and its Asian allies.

U.S. President Donald Trump has vowed that North Korea will never be allowed to threaten the United States with a nuclear-tipped missile, but has also solicited, China to play more leadership role in the region.

China in turn favours an international response to the problem. The United States and South Korea are technically still at war with North Korea because the 1950-53 Korean conflict ended with a truce and not a peace treaty.

Meanwhile, Agency report said that North Korea fired a missile on Friday that flew over Japan’s northern Hokkaido far out into the Pacific Ocean, South Korean and Japanese officials said, further heightening tensions after Pyongyang’s recent test of a powerful nuclear bomb.

According to the report, Japan Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters in a hastily organised media conference that the missile flew over Japan, landing in the Pacific about 2,000 km (1,240 miles) east of Hokkaido,

“These repeated provocations on the part of North Korea are unpermissible and we protest in the strongest words,” Suga said.

The unidentified missile reached an altitude of about 770 km (480 miles) and flew 3,700 km (2,300 miles), according to South Korea’s military – far enough to reach the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam.

Last month, North Korea fired a missile from similar area near the capital Pyongyang that also flew over Hokkaido into the ocean.
South Korea said it had fired a missile test into the sea to coincide with North Korea’s launch.

The presidential Blue House has called an urgent National Security Council meeting. Japan also convened a National Security Council meeting.

United States strong ally, Australia quickly condemned the launch. Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said in an interview with Sky News on Friday “”This is another dangerous, reckless, criminal act by the North Korean regime, threatening the stability of the region and the world and we condemn it, utterly,”

“This is a sign, I believe, of their frustration at the increased sanctions on North Korea, recently imposed by the Security Council. It’s a sign that the sanctions are working.”

The United Nations Security Council voted unanimously on a U.S.-drafted resolution and a new round of sanctions on Monday, banning North Korea’s textile exports and capping fuel supplies.