Long-Range Missile Launched by North Korea Lands in Sea Near Japan

The flight time is the longest ever for a North Korean missile, local media quoted Japanese Defense Ministry officials as saying.

Wednesday’s launch comes after Pyongyang accused the United States of repeatedly flying spy planes into its airspace.

Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of the North Korean leader, on Monday said such reconnaissance flights near its territory would be met with “resolute” consequences and threatened to shoot down such flights. Washington and Seoul denied North Korea’s allegations.

Earlier this week, North Korea’s Defense Ministry accused Washington of stoking tensions by planning to send a nuclear submarine to South Korea for the first time since 1981.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, who is in Lithuania to attend the annual NATO summit, convened an emergency meeting of the National Security Council to discuss the missile launch.

Julia Mio Inuma in Tokyo contributed to this report.