North Korean ballistic missile lands in Japanese waters

The Japan government said that North Korea has fired an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on Saturday. Japan's defence ministry confirmed that the missile flew for 66 minutes and landed in the Sea of Japan. Earlier on Friday, North Korea threatened to unleash an unprecedentedly strong retaliation to any military drills between South Korea and the US. South Korea's military reported the missile was launched from the Sunan district, north of Pyongyang, where the international airport is located. North Korea's ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programmes are banned by the UN Security Council. Yet Pyongyang continues on with its weapons development, and holds elaborate military parades to show them off.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said the missile appeared to have landed “within Japan’s EEZ, west of Hokkaido”. “It is an escalating provocation against the international community as a whole, and naturally we severely lodged a protest against it,” he added. Japanese officials said there were no immediate reports of damage to ships or aeroplanes. North Korea has also conducted several launches it described as simulated nuclear attacks against South Korean and US targets. Some 28,500 US troops are stationed in South Korea as a legacy of the 1950-1953 Korean War, which ended in an armistice rather than a full peace treaty, leaving the countries technically still at war.