Japanese PM blasts Pyongyang over missile test: 'Unprecedented, serious and grave threat'

By Park Si-soo

North Korea's launch of a missile over Japanese territory was an “unprecedented, serious and grave threat, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Tuesday”

“Their outrageous act of firing a missile over our country is an unprecedented, serious and grave threat and greatly damages the regional peace and security,” he told reporters as he entered his office early Tuesday for emergency meetings.

“We will do our utmost to protect the lives of our people.”

The Japanese government confirmed that a North Korean ballistic missile passed over the northern island of Hokkaido early hours on Tuesday morning.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference that the missile flew over Cape Erimo on Hokkaido and that the missile apparently fell 1,180 kilometers east of the area.

Suga said the missile posed a “serious, grave security threat” to Japan.

NHK reported that the missile broke into three pieces and crashed into the sea off Hokkaido, the northernmost Japanese island.

The Japanese military did not try to shoot down the missile. The government's J-Alert warning system advised people in the area to take precautions, but public broadcaster NHK said there was no sign of damage.