North Korea fires missile, forcing Japan to declare danger on the island

North Korea fired a ballistic missile off the coast of the Korean Peninsula on Thursday, the head of South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, quoted by Reuters, said.

Given the possibility that a rocket landed near the island of Hokkaido in Japan, the Japanese government has called on residents of the area to take shelter, the news agency reported. Later, the executive branch of this country raised the alarm, explaining that it was impossible to foresee that the wreckage would reach this zone.

The launch came two days after North Korean media reported that leader Kim Jong-un had called for greater measures to prevent war in the country in a “more practical and offensive” way to counter what he called aggression from the United States.