'N Korea does not have bright future': Abe warns Pyongyang

Japan was jolted awake in the early hours by an alert saying North Korea had fired a missile over its northern island of Hokkaido, the second such launch in less than a month.

Tokyo, Sep 15: Asserting that Japan would "never tolerate" North Korea's provocations, Prime minister Shinzo Abe has dubbed Pyongyang's recent missile test as an "outrageous act".

"We can never tolerate that North Korea trampled on the international community's strong, united resolve toward peace that has been shown in UN resolutions and went ahead again with this outrageous act," Abe told reporters.

"If North Korea continues to walk down this path, it has no bright future. We must make North Korea understand this," he added.

Japan was jolted awake in the early hours by an alert saying North Korea had fired a missile over its northern island of Hokkaido, the second such launch in less than a month. Abe called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council and stressed: "Now is the time for the international community to be united."

North Korea has fired an unidentified missile over Japan from the Sunan district in its capital, Pyongyang. The missile landed in the ocean, 2,000 km off the east coast of Hokkaido. The South Korean and US militaries are analysing details of the launch, the South's Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said. The missile flew over Japan, Japan's NHK television said.

The Japanese Government warned people to stay away from anything that could be debris and said the missile landed in the Pacific Ocean.

PTI