Evacuations in Japan as N.Korea Fires Ballistic Missile

Alarms were sounded on the Japanese island of Hokkaido on Thursday morning as North Korea fired a ballistic missile into the East Sea.

The provocation marks the 11th anniversary of North Korean leader Kim Jongs accession to power.

It came two days after the official [North] Korean Central News Agency released a photo that purportedly showed Kim discussing use of nuclear weapons with military officers while pointing at a map of South Korea.

The North also stopped answering daily routine phone calls on cross-border hotlines last Friday.

Thursday's missile sparked evacuations on Hokkaido after erroneous predictions that the missile would land in the sea close to the island.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff here said it was fired from the vicinity of Pyongyang at around 7:30 a.m. and flew about 1,000 km. The JCS speculated that it was a new solid-fuel ballistic missile.