Japan estimates that the missiles reached a maximum altitude of 80 kilometres (50 miles) and flew approximately 340 kilometres before landing near the east coast of the Korean Peninsula, outside Tokyo's exclusive economic zone. Early reports indicate that no damage has been reported by nearby aircraft or ships.
Our Navy's forces for attacking from under and above water will grow rapidly. The arming of the Navy with nuclear weapons is making satisfactory progress. All these successes constitute a radical change in defending our maritime sovereignty, something that we have not achieved for half a century.
They were denied basic human rights and forced to endure extreme hardship. Official promises of free education and healthcare plus guaranteed jobs and housing had been a cruel mirage. And to their horror, they were prevented from travelling to Japan to visit the families they had left behind. But this week, after years of campaigning, four settlers who had escaped to Japan secured justice when a court in Tokyo ordered the North Korean government to pay each of them at least 20m yen in compensation.
The United States' top nuclear arms official on Friday accused China of carrying out an undisclosed nuclear detonation in 2020, arguing that recent secretive underground tests by China and Russia have given Washington reason to conduct "parallel steps" as a decades-long moratorium on nuclear testing among major powers is unraveling.
South Korea hosts about 28,500 US troops in combined defence against North Korea's military threat and Seoul has raised its defence budget by 7.5% for this year. South Korea is capable of taking primary responsibility for deterring North Korea with critical but more limited US support, said the National Defense Strategy, a document that guides the Pentagon's policies. This shift in the balance of responsibility is consistent with America's interest in updating US force posture on the Korean Peninsula, the document added.