North Korea Launches Ballistic Missile Over Japan, Claims ‘The First Step’ In Its Military Operations

North Korea has fired a ballistic missile over northern Japan for the second time in less than a month.

After threatening to sink the four islands of Japan and turning the United States mainland into ashes and darkness, North Korea has made another provocative move in less than four weeks.

An official from South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff told reporters on Friday that the ballistic missile reached an estimated altitude of about 770 km (478 miles) and traveled 3,700 km before landing in the sea of Hokkaido.

The unidentified ballistic missile was launched from North Korea’s district city of Sunan in Pyongyang, just before 7 a.m. local time (22:00 GMT on Thursday). Pyongyang has called the attack only the “first step” in its military operations in the Pacific.

However, the U.S. Pacific Command said, during their initial assessment, that under Kim Jong-un’s leadership, the Korean Peninsula has fired an intermediate-range ballistic missile (ICBM). As of this writing, there are conflicting reports from Japan’s intelligence on the type of missile fired by North Korea.

In the light of this missile attack, Japan’s Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, said Japan is not going to tolerate North Korea’s dangerous actions and if the hermit state wants to keep on walking on the same path, then “it has no bright future.”

Japan had further called the launch an unprecedented threat to the livelihood of all their citizens.

After the news of the missile test was confirmed by different intelligence agencies, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson condemned the launch, but talked about the economic friendship of China and Russia with North Korea and how these two countries are helping Kim Jong-un’s economy.

“China supplies North Korea with most of its oil. Russia is the largest employer of North Korean forced labor.

“China and Russia must indicate their intolerance for these reckless missile launches by taking direct actions of their own.”

The military tensions between Pyongyang and Washington are escalating with each passing day. On Friday morning, the United Nations Security Council will meet in New York City at the request of the United States and Japan.

Earlier this year, after Donald Trump became the 45th president of the United States, Kim Jong-un insisted that his country needs a nuclear weapon program to protect itself from the western invasion. After multiple grave warnings from the United Nations, it has reportedly conducted several missile tests and disregarded the council’s sanctions.

[Featured Image by Ariel Schalit/AP Images]