World North Korean missile lands perilously close to Japan

SEOUL — North Korea shot a ballistic missile startlingly close to Japan on Wednesday, sparking stern condemnations from Tokyo, Seoul and Washington.

If confirmed, this would constitute the first time a North Korean missile had landed within Japan’s exclusive economic zone on the Sea of Japan side of the island chain. In 1998, North Korea fired a Taepodong-1 missile over Japan and into its economic zone on the Pacific Ocean side.

Wednesday’s actions were the latest apparent protest from North Korea over a decision by Seoul and Washington to bring an antimissile battery system to South Korea.

The medium-range Rodong missile splashed down inside Japan’s exclusive economic zone, within 125 miles of the country’s northwest coast, Japan’s Defense Ministry said.

In flight time, that meant the missile was only 20 or 30 seconds from Japan itself, said Euan Graham, who served as a British diplomat in Pyongyang, North Korea’s capital.

“It’s a clear case of walking right up to the line and just putting a nose over it,” said Graham, now an East Asian security expert at the Lowy Institute for International Policy in Sydney. “It’s a provocative act.”

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff and the U.S. Strategic Command said they detected two simultaneous launches of Rodong intermediate-range ballistic missiles from the North Korean launch site in the southwest of the country shortly before 8 a.m. local time Wednesday.

One appeared to explode shortly after launch, they said.

But the other appeared to fly over the peninsula and, some 12 minutes later, to land 620 miles away in the waters off the Akita prefecture