Tokyo, Nov 3 (Representative) North Korea on Thursday fired an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) designed to hit targets on the other side of the world and also Japan. It flew for about 760km and reached a height of around 1,920 km, said South Korean officials. The launches led the Japanese government to issue a rare emergency alert to residents in some of its northern regions, telling them to stay indoors for the first time in five years. Tokyo initially said the missile had flown over Japan, but Defence Minister Yasukazu Hamada later said it did “not cross the Japanese archipelago, but disappeared over the Sea of Japan”, the BBC reported. If North’s intent is to cow Japan, it is having the opposite effect, the report added.
Pyongyang’s missile tests, along with China’s recent threats to Taiwan, are having a profound impact on Japanese politics. For decades Japan’s right have called for the post-war pacifist constitution to be scrapped and the country to re-arm. Until now most ordinary Japanese have said no. However that is changing, and now the security hawks have all the justification they need to push ahead, the BBC added. In December, the Fumio Kishida government will propose doubling the defence budget over the next decade, and the acquisition of long-range strike weapons, the BBC reported. Reports also suggest Japan is negotiating the purchase of hundreds of Tomahawk cruise missiles from the US. That would mean for the first time since World War II Japan would have the ability to strike at targets deep inside China and North Korea.