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Japan Foreign Ministry Protests North Korea's Missile Launch

© REUTERS / KCNAAn underwater test-fire of strategic submarine ballistic missile is pictured in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang on April 24, 2016.
An underwater test-fire of strategic submarine ballistic missile is pictured in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang on April 24, 2016. - Sputnik International
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The Japanese Foreign Ministry issued a protest to North Korea over a ballistic missile launch on Wednesday, which Tokyo believed violated UN resolutions.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un guides on the spot the underwater test-fire of strategic submarine ballistic missile in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang on April 24, 2016 - Sputnik International
Asia
North Korea Fires Ballistic Missile From Submarine
TOKYO (Sputnik) — Earlier in the day, media reported that Pyongyang had launched a ballistic missile from a submarine in the Sea of ​​Japan. According to the reports, it traveled over 300 miles before plunging into the Sea of Japan, and allegedly fell in Japan's Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ). No damage to the Japanese air and sea vessels have so far been reported.

"The launch is a clear violation of UN Security Council resolutions, and poses a threat in terms of security," the ministry said in a statement, quoted by the Kyodo news agency.

The protest was transmitted through diplomatic channels through the Japanese Embassy in China, the agency said.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called the launch a grave threat to Japan security and an "unforgivable act," and ordered ministries to prepare for emergencies to ensure the safety of the population, as well as to start collecting and analyzing the information on the issue.

US and South Korea began Monday the Ulchi-Freedom Guardian large-scale military exercise, the computerized command and control implementation, which mainly focuses on defending South Korea from a possible North Korean attack.

Pyongyang has repeatedly claimed that the joint military drills are a rehearsal for a real attack on North Korea. The United States and South Korea, in their turn, insisted that the exercises are aimed at training defensive skills for combating emerging threat from the North.

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