- North Korea fired Hwasong-12 intermediate ballistic missile on Tuesday
- It was reportedly launched to counter S Korea-US Drills
The missile passed over northern Japan, the Japanese government said - The missile broke into three pieces and fell into waters off Japan’s Hokkaido
- The missile fell in waters 1,180 km east of Cape Erimo on Hokkaido
- The Pentagon confirmed the missile flew over Japan but did not pose a threat to North America
UN Council Unanimously Condemns North Korea Missile Test
The UN Security Council has denounced North Korea's latest missile test, unanimously demanding that Pyongyang halt the program after a rocket was fired over Japan into the Pacific.
Following the emergency closed-door session called by the United States and Japan, Tokyo's envoy at the UN suggested that a new sanctions declaration could be issued.
"Next step starting now. We can't predict the outcome but I certainly hope it would be a strong resolution following this statement," Koro Bessho said yesterday.
The 15-member body maintained its unity after Kim Jong- Un's latest provocation, with China and Russia agreeing to sign up to a statement condemning his isolated regime's action.
Kim Jong Un Calls For More Weapon Launches
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called for more weapon launches targeting the Pacific Ocean.
Kim expressed “great satisfaction” over the launch of Hwasong-12.
He called the launch a “meaningful prelude” to containing Guam and said North Korea would continue to watch the US demeanour before it decides future actions, Korean Central News Agency said.
It is necessary to positively push forward the work for putting the strategic force on a modern basis by conducting more ballistic rocket launching drills with the Pacific as a target in the future.Kim Jong Un
N Korea Says it Launched Hwasong-12 Rocket to Counter S Korea-US Drills
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un guided a launch of its Hwasong-12 intermediate-range ballistic missile on Tuesday in a drill to counter the joint military exercises by South Korean and US militaries, the North's official KCNA news agency said on Wednesday.
"The current ballistic rocket launching drill like a real war is the first step of the military operation of the KPA in the Pacific and a meaningful prelude to containing Guam," KCNA quoted Kim as saying.
KPA stands for the Korean People's Army, the North's military.
North Korea threatened to fire four Hwasong-12 missiles into the sea near the US Pacific territory of Guam earlier this month after US President Donald Trump said the North would face "fire and fury" if it threatened the United States.
North Korea's Missile Launch Shows its Not Bluffing: Russian Lawmaker
North Korea's latest missile test shows its threat to fire four missiles into the waters near the US Pacific territory of Guam was not a bluff, a senior Russian lawmaker said on Tuesday.
Pyongyang fired a ballistic missile over Japan's northern Hokkaido island into the sea early on Tuesday. The test, one of the most provocative ever from the reclusive state, appeared to have been of a recently developed intermediate-range Hwasong-12 missile, experts said.
“Alas, Pyongyang has demonstrated that its threats to the US base on Guam are not a bluff,” Konstantin Kosachev, chairman of the upper house of parliament’s international affairs committee, said on social media.
Kosachev also said that a United Nations Security Council resolution regarding North Korea's missile programme which passed this month had failed to achieve its objective, "because the situation has turned into a bilateral standoff between North Korea and the United States".