North Korea Fires Missile Over Japan
While North Korea has not carried out its threat to fire four of its ballistic missiles toward the coast of Guam — and near an American air base — the missile it fired over Japan on Tuesday appeared to be of the same type: an intermediate-range missile
that could target American, South Korean and Japanese bases in northeast Asia.
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea carried out one of its most provocative missile tests in recent years early Tuesday morning, hurling a ballistic missile directly over Japan
that prompted the government in Tokyo to warn residents in its path to take cover.
Lt. Gen. Hiroaki Maehara, the commander of the Japan Air Self-Defense Force’s Air Defense Command, said
that the armed forces did not try to shoot down the missile from North Korea on Tuesday because they did not detect a threat to Japanese territory.
“I wondered, where will the missile go to?”
South Korea said it was ready to defend itself from the North Korean threat.
The North Korean missile tests on Saturday and again on Tuesday came during joint military drills
that the United States and South Korea started a week ago.