TOKYO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 07th October, 2022) The Japan Self-Defense Forces chose not to shoot down the missiles launched by North Korea earlier in the week as there was no threat of its falling within the Japanese territory, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Friday.
North Korea launched a ballistic missile that flew a record distance of 4,600 kilometers (2,858 miles) over Japan's northern Aomori Prefecture and fell outside territorial waters 3,000 kilometers east of Iwate Prefecture.
"The analysis of the data on the missile's trajectory, obtained by different radars of the defense forces, showed that there was no threat of its falling on the Japanese territory, so that we did not take any measures to destroy it," Kishida said at a parliamentary meeting.
On Thursday, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff reported that North Korea had launched two short-range missiles from the Samsok district in Pyongyang at 21:01 GMT and 21:23 GMT on Wednesday, respectively.
The Japanese military said that both missiles fell outside Japan's exclusive economic zone. The range of the missiles was 350 kilometers and 800 kilometers, and the maximum altitude was 100 kilometers and 50 kilometers, respectively. To date, there have been no reports of damage to sea or aircraft.
