North Korea fired two ballistic missiles towards the sea off the Korean Peninsula’s east coast on Sunday, South Korea’s military said.
Japan’s Vice Defence Minister Toshiro Ino said the North Korean-fired ballistic missiles seemed to have landed outside Japan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
The missiles flew to an altitude of 550 kilometers (342 miles) and covered a range of 250 kilometers (53 miles), according to the Japanese Defence Ministry.
Ino said there had been no report of damage from the missiles so far.
The Japanese government says a North Korean missile appears to have flown over Japan and fallen into the ocean.
Officials believe the missile was launched from a location in North Korea at about 7:22 a.m. Japan time.
They said it appeared to be a ballistic missile, and was heading towards Hokkaido and Aomori prefectures in northern Japan.
The Japanese government issued an alert through the nationwide emergency warning system, which sends information to local governments through satellites.
It told people in the areas to take shelter in sturdy buildings or underground.
At 7:46 a.m., officials said the missile may have flown over Japan and fallen into the Pacific Ocean.
They say it appears to have fallen outside of the country’s exclusive economic zone.
It’s the seventh time ever that a ballistic missile has flown over Japan.
The defense ministry says it is the 23rd time that North Korea has test-fired missiles this year. Officials from Japan, the US, and South Korea are monitoring the situation.
Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio says” We strongly condemn the launch as an outrageous act. In response to it, I have instructed officials to check for possible damage caused by falling objects, to thoroughly collect and analyze information, and cooperate with allies.”
Japan’s largest rail operator halted bullet train service in northern Japan as a precaution.
Transportation officials also issued a warning to air traffic around the country
A false warning of a missile threat in Hawaii sent White House aides scrambling Saturday, frantically phoning agencies to determine a response and triggering worries about their preparedness almost a year into the Trump administration.
President Donald Trump’s Cabinet has yet to test formal plans for how to respond to a domestic missile attack, according to a senior administration official. John Kelly, while serving as Secretary of Homeland Security through last July, planned to conduct the exercise. But he left his post to become White House chief of staff before it was conducted, and acting secretary Elaine Duke never carried it out.
The Old Cold War guard is gone. The newcomers can issue threats but appear to be unaware on how to act on them..
“The U.S. government hasn’t tested these plans in 30 years,” said the senior administration official involved in the White House response. “All the fresh faces sitting around the table in the situation room have little idea what their roles would be in this scenario. The bottom line is that without a principals level exercise we shouldn’t have any confidence that the Cabinet would know what to do in an attack scenario.”
Jocelyn Azbell had just woken up in her Maui hotel Saturday when she was hurried into the hotel’s basement to take shelter from an incoming ballistic missile. “You’re thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, are we going to die? Is it really a missile (headed) our way, or is it just a test?’” the 24-year-old told CNN. “We really didn’t know.” Minutes before, she’d received an ominous alert on her phone. “BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.”
Azbell, her boyfriend and hundreds of other hotel guests were “herded like cows” into the basement by staff. “People are crying and people obviously were super scared,” she said. For 20 minutes, Azbell said, they waited. Finally, they were told that the alert was a false alarm, and they were free to resume their day. Azbell said she was “super relieved.” “Hawaii is beautiful,” she told CNN. “But it’s not where I want to die.”
Hawaii Emergency Management Agency Administrator Vern Miyagi said at a press conference with the governor Saturday afternoon that a single individual sent out the alert by mistake. The individual went so far as to click through a second message, intended as a safeguard, that asked whether the alert should go out.
But the blame should not fall on that man’s shoulders alone, Miyagi said. “I accept responsibility for this,” he said. “This is my team. We made a mistake. We are going to process this and study this to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
World War I arguably was ignited with an assassination.. World War II was ongoing and the United States was thrown into the nightmare when Japan bombed our fleet at Pearl Harbor..
So what will future generations ponder if history ends up creating a war between rival nations–over Tweets!!?
President Trump warned the Kim Jong UN From North Korea: “North Korean Leader Kim Jong-Un just stated that the ”Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times.” Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!’
The threat came after an annual speech given by Kim, in which he cautioned: ‘The U.S. should know that the button for nuclear weapons is on my table.’
Kim warned America that it can ‘never start a war against me and our country’ and insisted his nukes are now a reality, not a threat.
The media is in a feeding frenzy over the ‘my button is bigger than your button’ Tweet.. other nations are closely monitoring the ongoing tension and warning of a nightmare scenario should war break out on the peninsula..
Twitter.
Who could have ever predicted a time where a president named Trump issued something called a ‘tweet’ that could ignite a flare up of tensions in a land that has been technically still at ‘war’ for decades..? Not the best psychic in the world could have..
Otto Warmbier, the University of Virginia student who was detained in North Korea for nearly a year and a half, died Monday afternoon, his parents announced.
Warmbier had been medically evacuated and returned to Cincinnati last week in a coma.
“Unfortunately, the awful torturous mistreatment our son received at the hands of the North Koreans ensured that no other outcome was possible beyond the sad one we experienced today,” his parents, Fred and Cindy Warmbier, said in a written statement.
North Korea is on its way toward developing intercontinental ballistic missiles that can hit the United States. Trump has said this is unacceptable. Under Obama, such a viewpoint would have been theoretical and lacked teeth. Under Trump, it’s a different story.
And that may be why the Senate is headed to the White House, something I’ve never heard of before unless it was for a picnic.
A similar briefing for House members is being arranged, according to Reuters
Can we all get a collective chill and ponder aloud as to the future of this world?
TRUMP APRIL 26. TRUMP APRIL 26. TRUMP APRIL 26. TRUMP APRIL 26. TRUMP APRIL 26. TRUMP APRIL 26.
