Japan’s Self-Defense Forces have not received orders to intercept an intercontinental ballistic missile launched by North Korea, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said at a press conference Friday.·
“No interception was carried out,” he said, responding to a corresponding question from reporters. According to government estimates, Matsuno added, the missile flew on a steep trajectory: at a maximum altitude of 6,000 kilometers, it traveled 1,000 kilometers and fell about 200 kilometers west of Oshima-Oshima, an island belonging to Japan’s northern Hokkaido prefecture.
The North Korean missile launch came after yesterday’s statement by the country’s Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui, in which she stressed that North Korea would respond in direct proportion to strengthening the US extended deterrence, which the leaders of the US, Japan and the Republic of Korea agreed upon during the trilateral summit in Cambodia.
