{"id":412889,"date":"2017-08-29T08:33:25","date_gmt":"2017-08-29T08:33:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ghana-mma.com\/2017\/08\/29\/north-korea-fires-missile-over-japan-in-unprecedented-threat\/"},"modified":"2017-08-29T08:33:25","modified_gmt":"2017-08-29T08:33:25","slug":"north-korea-fires-missile-over-japan-in-unprecedented-threat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/08\/29\/north-korea-fires-missile-over-japan-in-unprecedented-threat\/","title":{"rendered":"North Korea fires missile over Japan in \u2018unprecedented threat\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

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North Korea has fired a missile over northern Japan in a move Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called an \u201cunprecedented\u201d threat to his country.<\/p>\n

The missile, launched early on Tuesday Korean time, flew over Hokkaido island before crashing into the sea.<\/p>\n

The UN Security Council is expected to hold an emergency meeting in response.<\/p>\n

North Korea has conducted\u00a0a flurry of missile tests<\/strong>\u00a0recently, but this is the first time it has fired what is thought to be a ballistic weapon over Japan.<\/p>\n

On the two previous occasions its rockets crossed Japan \u2013 in 1998 and 2009 \u2013 North Korea said they were for satellite launch vehicles, not weapons.<\/p>\n

The BBC\u2019s Rupert Wingfield-Hayes in Tokyo says this latest launch appears to be the first of a missile powerful enough to potentially carry a nuclear warhead.<\/p>\n

The South Korean military said the missile was fired eastward just before 06:00 local time (21:00 GMT) from near the North\u2019s capital, Pyongyang \u2013 which is rare.<\/p>\n

Early analysis of the launch suggests the missile:<\/p>\n