One of the four ballistic missiles test-fired by North Korea into the Sea of Japan on Monday landed about 200 km north of the Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture, the closest ever such touchdown to Japan's mainland, government officials said Thursday.
The location where the missile splashdown occurred was revealed by Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga at a news conference. A senior Defense Ministry official later confirmed that the impact site was the closest to the mainland among dozens of ballistic missiles fired by North Korea into the Sea of Japan or the Pacific Ocean to date.
Suga said one of the three missiles fired by Pyongyang in September last year landed about 200 km west of Okushiri Island off Hokkaido. This is now considered the second-closest to the mainland, the senior Defense Ministry official said.