North Korea has launched a missile which flew over Japan, prompting a warning for people to take cover.
The rocket flew over Hokkaido island in Japan at around 6am local time on Tuesday.
The Japanese government issued a warning: "A missile was fired from North Korea.
"Please evacuate to a sturdy building or basement."
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North Korea again asked the U.N. Security Council to meet to discuss the ongoing joint U.S.-South Korean military drills, according to a letter released on Monday by the North Korean mission to the United Nations.
The Aug. 25 letter to the Security Council and Secretary-General Antonio Guterres from North Korean U.N. Ambassador Ja Song Nam described the military exercises as a “grave threat” to the Korean peninsula and international peace and security.
“It is the fair and square self-defensive right of the DPRK to cope with reckless, aggressive war manoeuvres and the U.S. would be wholly responsible for any catastrophic consequences to be entailed from the result,” Ja wrote, using the initials of North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
Similar previous requests have gone unanswered by the 15-member Security Council.
The 15-member U.N. Security Council unanimously imposed new sanctions on North Korea in response to the two July long-range missile launches.
The missile North Korea launched is believed to have been a Hwasong-12, an intermediate ballistic missile capable of travelling around 6,000km.
It is the first time North Korea has sent a missile over Japan in almost 20 years.
The last time was in 1998, when North Korea tested a long-range Taepodong-1 missile sparking international outcry.
There was some dispute about a missile launch in 2009, but Pyongyang claimed this was a satellite.
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