North Korea launched a missile over Japan toward the Pacific Ocean.
North Korea launched a missile over Japan toward the Pacific Ocean Friday morning, South Korea’s military said.
The missile was fired from Sunan, the location of the international airport serving Pyongyang, North Korea’s capital, according to the military.
Japan acknowledged that the missile probably passed over its territory and is telling residents to take cover, the BBC reported.
Japan did not attempt to shoot down the missile, Bloomberg reported, crediting NHK out of Japan.
South Korea and the United States are analyzing the reports of the missile launch, BBC reported, crediting the Yonhap news agency.
The development comes one day after North Korea threatened to use weapons to “sink” Japan and turn the United States to “ashes and darkness.”
“The four islands of the archipelago should be sunken into the sea by the nuclear bomb of Juche, ” the Korea Asia-Pacific Peace Committee, North Korea’s official propaganda arm, said in a statement. “Japan is no longer needed to exist near us, ” the statement read.
Juche, which translates as “self-reliance, ” is North Korea’s ruling ideology, a mix of Marxism and hyper-nationalism.
Earlier this week, the United Nations Security Council adopted sanctions after North Korea’s sixth nuclear test in September. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un threatened to launch missiles over Japan and toward the United States territory of Guam, in the Pacific.
The earlier developments prompted a series of counter threats from President Trump.
A North Korean missile launch over Japan in late August traveled 1,700 miles and reached a maximum height of 341 miles as it traveled over the Japanese island of Hokkaido.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in has scheduled a National Security Council meeting to discuss the most recent launch.
More: North Korea threatens to ‘sink’ Japan and turn U. S. to ‘ashes and darkness’
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Contributing: Kim Hjelmgaard from London, Michael James from McLean, Va., and Jim Michaels from Washington; the Associated Press.
