A passer-by on a street in Tokyo listens to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s speech about the new missile launches. RICHARD A. BROOKS/AFP
In a sign of excitement about North Korea’s intensifying military activities, Japan on Thursday, November 3, issued an unfounded warning about a North Korean missile that would have passed over the archipelago. It was a mistake: the machine, abandoned from near Pyongyang, would have been damaged in the Sea of Japan (Baltic Sea) before reaching the archipelago.
The J-Alert system, which broadcasts warnings of earthquakes or other tsunamis and whenever a missile threatens to reach or fly over Japanese territory, was activated at 8 a.m. Residents of Miyagi, Yamagata and Niigata (Northeast) prefectures, believed to be in the path of the missile, were awakened on this culture-dedicated holiday to a message telling them that “the missile entered the Pacific Ocean at around 7:48 a.m contact the police or fire department immediately.” The warning was also sent to Tokyo residents. About ten minutes later she was picked up.
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Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was quick to call for “keeping planes and ships safe” and “being prepared for any eventuality”. She urgently convened her National Security Council.
But it was a false alarm. According to the South Korean military, North Korea has fired three missiles. One of these could be an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) with the potential to overfly Japan. It would have left the Sunan area near Pyongyang at 7:40 a.m. The other two would be short-range ballistic models. They would have taken off from Kaechon in South Pyongan province (in the west of the country) at 8:39 am. The three would have fallen east of the peninsula. According to the Japanese military, the suspected ICBM reached an altitude of 2,000 kilometers and covered a distance of 750 km.
Threat of a seventh nuclear test
“The J-Alert system was activated because the missile was able to fly over the Japanese archipelago. After checking, it turned out that the rocket did not make it and fell into the Sea of Japan. We continue our analyses,” said Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada, while criticizing the way the J-Alert system works. The false alarm didn’t stop Mr. Kishida from deploring recent rocket launches, whose “continuous firing” is “an outrage and intolerable”.
A North Korean Intermediate-Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM) flew over Japan on October 4 for the first time since 2017. The Nov. 3 firing followed those of 23 short-range missiles the previous day, still over Pyongyang. Unprecedented since the Korean War (1950-1953), one of these missiles would have fallen less than 60 km from the South Korean coast near the “Northern Limit Line” (LLN), which is the de facto maritime border between the two countries but the course remains controversial. South Korean President Yoon Seok-youl denounced a “de facto territorial invasion” and ordered a response. Southern fighters fired three air-to-surface missiles.
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These developments come as the threat of a seventh nuclear test by North Korea looms. The South Korean secret services expect him before November 8th, the day of the US midterm elections.
Tensions are expected to linger: North Korea claims its activities are responding to massive maneuvers by the Americans, South Koreans and even the Japanese, which it sees as a repeat of the invasion of its territory. After the Ulchi Freedom Shield drills in late August and the Hoguk drills in late October, the Americans and South Koreans are conducting Vigilance Storm maneuvers through November 4, the largest ever organized by the two countries. with 240 combat aircraft and several thousand mobilized soldiers.
The situation is expected to dominate South Korean Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup’s exchanges with his American counterparts during the Security Consultative Meeting (SCM) scheduled for Nov. 3 in Washington, an annual forum bringing together Americans and South Koreans.