Former Sydney man and Japanese ski field worker Scott Walker caught up in North Korea missile alert

JAPANESE ski field worker and former Sydney resident Scott Walker’s 6am iPhone alert today was frighteningly succinct. ‘A missile has been shot over your area, seek shelter in a basement’.

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JAPANESE ski field worker and former Sydney resident Scott Walker’s 6am iPhone alert today was frighteningly succinct: ‘A missile has been shot over your area, seek shelter in a basement’.

The 52-year-old was one of at least 100 Australians living in the Hokkaido skifields caught up in today’s alert after North Korea fired a ballistic missile over Japan.

Alert but not alarmed... Scott Walker. Picture: Facebook

A woman walks past a TV screen broadcasting news of North Korea's missile launch, in Tokyo. Picture: AP

He received an alert on his wife’s iPhone from the government’s J-Alert warning system advising people in the area to take precautions.

It simply stated ‘a missile has been shot over your area and you should seek shelter in a basement’.

The missile eventually broke into three pieces and landed in waters about 1180km east of Cape Erimo in Hokkaido, the northernmost of Japan’s main islands.

A teleconference at a Hokkaido Government site in Sapporo, northern Japan after missile launch. Picture: AP

The launch has been described as “an unprecedented grave threat”. Picture: AFP

Mr Walker, who has lived in the ski town of Hirafu for 20 years, said an earthquake alarm also sounded in the town warning residents to seek shelter.

But he said he and his wife didn’t heed the advice, and said he expected if the missile would hit the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, it would be intercepted by a Missile Defense system.

Police officers stand guard near the HQ of the pro-Pyongyang General Association of Korean Residents in Tokyo. Picture: AP

“The alarms went off, we got a message coming in on the phone, saying get into a basement, we just ignored it because it was not going to make a difference,” he said.

“If it came to anything, I don’t think we need to be worried, we have the backing of America, which has the interception system.”

“There was an alarm in the town, which is just like a normal sounding alarm we would hear if there was an earthquake.”

“We turned the TV on and have a look, they said get into a basement, we ignored it.”

He estimates there are at least a hundred Australians living in the ski fields year round, with that number surging into the thousands during Japan’s winter ski season.