N Korea's missile launch over Japan escalates tension

North Korea fired a ballistic missile over Japan's northern Hokkaido island into the sea early on Aug. 29, prompting warnings to residents to take cover and drawing a sharp reaction from Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

The test, one of the most provocative ever from the reclusive state, came as U.S. and South Korean forces conduct annual military exercises on the peninsula, to which North Korea strenuously objects.

North Korea has conducted dozens of ballistic missile tests under young leader Kim Jong Un, the most recent on Aug. 26, but firing projectiles over mainland Japan is rare.

"North Korea's reckless action is an unprecedented, serious and a grave threat to our nation," Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters.

Abe said he spoke to U.S. President Donald Trump on yesterday and they agreed to increase pressure on North Korea. Trump also said the United States was "100 percent with Japan," Abe told reporters.

South Korea's military said the missile was launched from near the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, just before 6 am and flew 2,700 kms, reaching an altitude of about 550 kms. 

Four South Korean fighter jets bombed a military firing range on Aug. 29 after President Moon Jae-in asked the military to demonstrate capabilities to counter North Korea.

South Korea and the United States had discussed deploying additional "strategic assets" on the Korean peninsula, the presidency said in a statement, without giving more details.

North Korea remained defiant. 

"The U.S. should know that it can neither browbeat the DPRK with any economic sanctions and military threats and blackmail nor make the DPRK flinch from the road chosen by itself," North Korea's official Rodong Sinmun...