A North Korean missile test briefly raised alarm in Japan. According to the South Korean military, North Korea fired a nuclear-capable missile with a range of probably thousands of kilometers towards the open sea on Thursday. The rocket was launched near the North Korean capital Pyongyang, the general staff in Seoul said. As a result, the projectile flew at a steep launch angle about 1000 kilometers in the direction of the Sea of Japan, where it then fell into the water.
After the rocket launch, the authorities in Japan called on the residents of the northern island of Hokkaido to seek shelter: “Evacue immediately! Evacuate immediately!”, According to the “Japan Times”, the alarm message said. People should take shelter in a building or underground. About 20 minutes after launch, the authorities gave the all-clear and said the missile was no longer a threat to Japan’s northernmost prefecture.
Based on the information available immediately after the launch, it was initially assumed that the North Korean missile would strike on or near Japanese territory, a government spokesman said later at a press conference, according to the newspaper. That is why the decision was made to send out warnings via the Japanese alarm systems J-Alert and Em-Net.
The head of the Japanese government’s cabinet secretariat, Hirokazu Matsuno, said the decision was right and not a mistake. “We have not corrected the information issued by the J-Alert emergency system,” Matsuno said. The North Korean missile disappeared from Japanese radar immediately after its discovery. Only a further analysis showed that they would not hit Japanese territory, which led to the evacuation warning being lifted.
“Given the J-Alert system’s role in promptly informing the public of the danger of falling objects such as rockets, we issued the alert with the view that the safety of the people of Japan is the top priority,” the Japan Times quoted as saying ” the chief of cabinet. “I believe the decision to raise the alarm was appropriate.”
Which: “Japan Times”