North Korea Fires Four Banned Ballistic Missiles Into Japanese Territorial Waters 190 Miles From Coast

NBC News reports:

North Korea fired four banned ballistic missiles into Japanese waters on Monday, an act that officials in Seoul and Tokyo said represented a grave threat to their countries’ security.

The missiles were launched at about 7:36 a.m. Monday (5:36 p.m. Sunday ET) off North Korea’s eastern coast, and traveled about 620 miles, a South Korean military official told NBC News. They landed in the East Sea, which is also called the Sea of Japan, the official added.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said “strong protests” had been lodged with North Korea over the incident. “The launches are clearly in violation of [U.N.] Security Council resolutions. It is an extremely dangerous action,” Abe told Japan’s parliament.

Some of the missiles landed in waters as close as 190 miles from Japan’s northwest coast, Japan’s Defense Minister Tomomi Inada said. That falls within the 200-nautical-mile offshore area where Tokyo has sovereign rights for exploring and exploiting resources, known as its exclusive economic zone.