North Korea’s missile launch over Japan provokes urgent phone-hook-up between Japanese PM and US President Trump

JAPANESE Prime Minister Shinzo Abe described the North Korean launch of a missile capable of carrying a nuclear payload an “unprecedented, serious and grave threat”.

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NORTH Korean despot Kim Jong-un moved the world one step closer to a potential ­nuclear war yesterday — firing a missile over Japan.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the launch of the missile capable of carrying a nuclear payload marked an “unprecedented, serious and grave threat”.

He held a 40-minute phone call with US President Donald Trump and called for an emergency UN Security Council meeting to increase pressure on North Korea. The launch came after the rogue nation’s threat of firing missiles into the sea near the US Pacific Island of Guam were met with threats of “fire and fury” by Mr Trump.

North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un after a successful missile launch.

The rocket was sent from the North Korean capital Pyongyang and flew 2700km in just over eight minutes. It passed over the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, sending panicked residents scuttling for cover, before breaking into three ­pieces in the Pacific Ocean 1200km off the coast.

In Tokyo, Mr Abe said: “Their outrageous act of firing a missile over our country is an unprecedented, serious and grave threat and greatly damages regional peace and security.”

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe talks to the media following yesterday’s launch over Japan.

US President Trump said to journalists yesterday that "all options are on the table" with reference to the North Korean launch. Picture: AP

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was also quick to slam the latest in a long line of provocations from Pyongyang­. “Australia condemns this latest reckless, dangerous and provocative act by the North Korean regime which continues to threaten the peace and stability of the region,” Mr Turnbull said.

After receiving a security briefing on the crisis he called on China to use its economic leverage to bring the secretive North Korean regime “to its senses”.

Mr Trump condemned the launch and again warned “all options are on the table”.

“The world has received North Korea’s latest message loud and clear: This regime has signalled its contempt for its neighbours, for all members of the United Nations, and for minimum standards of acceptable international behaviour,” he said.

“Threatening and destabilising actions only increase the North Korean regime’s isolation in the region and among all nations of the world. All options are on the table.”

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop praised the Japanese for their restraint.

“I understand the Japanese made the decision not to shoot it down,” Ms Bishop said. “They were clearly tracking it, they have the capability to do that, and made the calculation it was not going to hit Japanese territory but would fall into the ocean. So there is obviously some value in leaving it rather than shooting it down.”

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said North Korea has ‘signalled its contempt for its neighbours’. Picture: Kym Smith

Ms Bishop said Australia stood ready to assist Japan in any way it could.

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In retaliation to the 6am missile launch, South Korea staged a live-bombing drill simulating an attack on dictator Kim and his coterie of military advisers. South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported a number of F-15K fighters had dropped eight one-ton bombs at a simulated target yesterday afternoon.

Ms Bishop said she believed North Korea was ramping up its testing to improve its bargaining power with the international community.

“We have seen this pattern of behaviour by the North ­Korean regimes over a number of decades,” Ms Bishop said. “They ramp up the provocative behaviour and it gets to a point where they then sit down and negotiate.”

South Korea's F-15K fighter jets drop bombs during training at the Taebaek Pilsung Firing Range in response to North Korea’s missile test. Picture: Getty

The Turnbull government is also confident increasingly tight economic sanctions, which begin on Friday, will force the dictatorial regime to the negotiating table.

“This will start to have a significant economic impact on North Korea and that is when the opportunity will arise to bring North Korea back to the negotiating table,” Ms Bishop said.

But the North Koreans ­remained defiant. “The US should know that it can ­neither browbeat the DPRK with any economic sanctions and military threats and blackmails nor make the DPRK flinch from the road chosen by itself,” a government spokesman said.

The launch came just over a week after Pyongyang threatened Australia over its support of US-led defence exercises in the region, labelling the stance a “suicidal act”.