South Korea holds live-fire drills post North Korea firing missile over Japan: Report

South Korea's air force staged a live-fire drill post North Korea firing missile over Japan. North Korea fired an unidentified missile from near the capital Pyongyang, towards the northeast.

North Korea has fired a missile that flew over northern Japan before crashing into the sea, reports BBC news.

According to BBC news, No effort was made by the Japanese to shoot down the missile, which was launched early on Tuesday morning. The missile broke into three pieces before it landed.

The US has also confirmed that North Korea launched a missile over Japan, in a major escalation by Pyongyang amid tensions over its weapons ambitions.

The missile was launched “within the last 90 minutes,” Colonel Rob Manning, a Pentagon spokesman, said on Tuesday.

“We assess North Korea conducted a missile launch within the last 90 minutes. We can confirm that the missile launched by North Korea flew over Japan,” Manning added, cautioning that the United States was still assessing the launch.

However, North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) “determined the missile launch from North Korea did not pose a threat to North America,” Manning said.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that the missile was launched around from Sunan, near Pyongyang, and traveled east “and over Japan.”

It travelled around 1,700 miles (2,700 kilometers) at a maximum altitude of around 350 miles, it said, adding that South Korea and the US were “closely analysing for more details.”  

(With PTI Inputs)