The Japanese Coast Guard said that the missile had landed around 8:10 a.m., suggesting the missile's flight time was around 30 minutes. By then, an evacuation order had already been issued via the J-Alert emergency messaging system to residents of Miyazaki, Yamagata and Niigata prefectures at around 7:53 a.m. news conference that the missile did not fly over Japan. After initially announcing that the first missile overflew the Japanese archipelago, Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada confirmed at a 9 a.m. A South Korean military official who spoke to the JoongAng Ilbo on condition of anonymity said that the missile went through a stage separation mid-flight, suggesting that it was a long-range weapon. According to Seoul's Defense Ministry, the North fired one long-range ballistic missile from the Pyongyang area into the East Sea around 7:40 a.m., followed by two short-range ballistic missiles from South Pyongan Province around 8:39 a.m. North Korea fired three missiles Thursday morning, including one possibly longer-range ballistic missile, South Korean military officials said. A TV screen shows a file image of a North Korean missile launch during a news program at Seoul Station in central Seoul on Wednesday.
