TOKYO, Apr 13 the possible fall of a North Korean missile and a call for the evacuation of the population on the northern island of Hokkaido, since at some point the missile disappeared from the radar, this was announced at a press conference in Tokyo by the secretary general of the government, Hirokazu Matsuno.
«Immediately after the detection, an object that was likely to fall in the Hokkaido area disappeared from the radar. With limited detection information, the system generated such a flight tracking, so from the point of view of the priority of public safety, the emergency alert system J- alert,» Matsuno said.
As Toshiyuki Ito, a former member of the self-defense forces, now a professor at the Kanazawa University of Technology, Toshiyuki Ito explained on NHK, ballistic missiles can disappear from radar due to the high altitude that radars do not cover. The point of impact is calculated at the moment the missile is detected, as it flies along an arcuate trajectory. However, then, as the missile descends, it reappears on radar, which makes it possible to more accurately determine the place of its possible fall. However, this did not happen on Thursday, the expert does not rule out that the rocket exploded in the air.
On Thursday morning, North Korea fired a ballistic missile into the Sea of Japan. After that, the media reported that the rocket fell outside the exclusive economic zone, but soon the emergency warning systems transmitted information about an urgent evacuation due to the fact that the rocket would fall in the region of the northernmost island of Hokkaido. Then this information was clarified and corrected, as it became clear that the rocket would not fall in the Hokkaido area. Later, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said that the missile did not fall in the country's territorial waters or on the territory of the country, and Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada acknowledged the possibility that the missile was intercontinental, and also said that its flight within the exclusive economic zone was not recorded. . To this hour, information about the damage caused to Japanese ships and aircraft has not been recorded.
This is already the 9th launch of a ballistic missile this year, if we count the launches of cruise missiles, then the 12th. North Korea launched 37 ballistic missiles last year.