North Korea fires missile over Japan in ’unprecedented threat’

North Korea has fired a missile over Japan in a move Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called an "unprecedented" threat to his country and US President Donald Trump said was an act of "contempt".

The missile, launched early on Tuesday Korean time, flew over Hokkaido island before crashing into the sea.

The UN Security Council is to hold an emergency meeting later in response.

North Korea has conducted a flurry of missile tests recently amid growing international unease.

This is the first time it has fired what is thought to be a ballistic weapon over Japan. On the two previous occasions its rockets crossed Japan - in 1998 and 2009 - North Korea said they were for satellite launch vehicles, and therefore not weapons.

The BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes in Tokyo says this latest launch appears to be the first of a missile powerful enough to potentially carry a nuclear warhead.

Residents told to seek shelter

( Footage on social media appears to show warning alarms triggered by the missile )

The South Korean military said the missile was fired eastward just before 06:00 local time (21:00 GMT) from near the North's capital, Pyongyang - which is rare.

Early analysis of the launch suggests the missile:

• flew a distance of more than 2,700km (1,678 miles)
• was likely to have been a Hwasong-12, a newly developed intermediate range weapon
• reached a maximum altitude of about 550km (342 miles), lower than most previous North Korean tests
• fell into the North Pacific Ocean 1,180km off the Japanese coast after breaking into three pieces

...[ Continue to next page ]