North Korea says it was launched by a ‘space missile’.

Asia trembles again. there North Korea According to the South Korean military, it fired a rocket on Wednesday that briefly triggered warnings in Seoul and the Japanese archipelago (south) of Okinawa. South Korean civil servants said Pyongyang had fired a “so-called space launch vehicle” into the south.

Yonhap news agency reported that the South Korean military is investigating whether the device exploded in flight or crashed after it quickly disappeared from radar. “The (North Korean) missile disappeared from radar before reaching its expected landing point,” the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff quoted Yonhap as saying the device “may have exploded in flight or crashed.”

Warnings in Japan and South Korea

“Missile launch. Missile launch. North Korea seems to have launched a missile. Please take shelter inside buildings or underground,” the Japanese prime minister’s office tweeted a warning to residents of Okinawa, broadcast by national broadcaster NHK.

However, the government canceled its warning after 30 minutes, deeming all danger to have passed. “It is expected that the previously mentioned missile will not arrive in Japan. Call to leave removed,” he tweeted.

South Korea also canceled a warning issued by the city of Seoul, which sounded sirens and sent an important emergency message to all cellphones, telling residents to prepare to evacuate “children and the elderly first.” “We inform you that the alert issued by the Seoul metropolitan authorities at 6:41 a.m. was initiated by mistake,” the South Korean interior ministry said.

Military satellite

North Korea announced on Tuesday that it would launch a “military spy satellite” to “counter the dangerous military activities of the US and its proxies”, while Japan, for its part, believes it will act as a missile launcher in disguise.

The Japanese Ministry of Defense ordered any missile to be shot down if it was confirmed to fall on land or sea, and deployed SM-3 and Patriot PAC-3 interceptor missiles for this purpose.

20 minutes with AFP