Millions of Japanese awoke to ominous text messages Tuesday warning them to take cover as a North Korean missile flew overhead, with one train operator bluntly explaining its halted service as "Reason: Ballistic missile launch."

Sirens blared out in northern communities that were on the flight path of the ballistic missile as it soared over Japanese territory for two minutes before crashing into the Pacific.

"Missile passing. Missile passing." warned an official text message sent to people across the north of Japan.

"A short time ago, a missile apparently passed above this area.

"If you find suspicious objects, please don't go near them and immediately call police or firefighters.

"Please take cover in secure buildings or underground."

North Korea's launch towards neighbouring Japan -- a key US ally and Korea's former colonial overlord -- marked a major escalation by Pyongyang amid tensions over its weapons ambitions.

And for the first time in the most recent round of weaponised brinkmanship from the North, it brought real worries to people in Japan.

Morning commuters in northernmost Hokkaido were greeted by warning signs at train stations -- bringing many rail services to a halt.

At one metro station in Sapporo, a major city of nearly two million, passengers were warned there would be delays.

"All lines are experiencing disruption," said one sign. "Reason: Ballistic missile launch."

Commuters took the government messages to heart.

"Some passengers came down to take cover in a couple of subway stations," a Sapporo subway spokesman told AFP.

Others had little choice but to carry on with their usual schedule, including the crews aboard some 15 fishing vessels that had already left port off southern Hokkaido in an area under the missile's path.

"I was surprised that it went above our area. This has never happened before," Hiroyuki Iwafune, an official at the local fishery co-op, told AFP.

"I was worried. Everyone felt the same. But what can you do? Hide? But where?

"We called those who were at sea. But then they said, 'Even with this (warning), what are we supposed to do?'" Iwafune added.

- 'Very dangerous'-

In Tokyo, more than 700 kilometres (435 miles) south of the missile's flight path, some train services were temporarily halted.

"Currently, a North Korean missile is flying above Japan," said announcements at Tokyo stations handling bullet trains, minutes after the launch.

"It is very dangerous. Please take cover at the waiting areas or inside the trains."

Yoshiaki Nakane, a retired government worker, said he feared Pyongyang's provocative launch would aggravate already tense US-North Korea relations.

"North Korea repeatedly launches missiles and don't seem to take any warnings seriously," the 68-year-old said.

"I'm hoping that the United States will not react too strongly to it and cause trouble. It would be Japan and South Korea that get damaged."

At a US military base in Tokyo on Tuesday, Japan deployed a Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) missile defence system as part of a previously scheduled drill.

The last time a North Korean rocket overflew Japan was in 2009, when Pyongyang said it was satellite launch. Washington, Seoul and Tokyo believed it was a clandestine test of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).

Japan has previously aired public service TV ads and held emergency drills -- with schoolchildren ducking on the street, covering their heads and running for cover -- to prepare for the ever-present threat from its erratic neighbour.

Tokyo university student Julia Kotake said she was scared that North Korean missile may strike Japan one day.

"But I don't think there is anything that we could do," the 18-year-old told AFP.

North Korea fires ballistic missile over Japan
Seoul (AFP) Aug 29, 2017 - Nuclear-armed North Korea fired a ballistic missile over Japan on Tuesday in a major escalation that triggered global alarm and a furious response from the government in Tokyo.

A visibly unsettled Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said it was an "unprecedented, serious and grave threat", while the UN Security Council called an emergency meeting at Tokyo and Washington's request.

Sirens blared out and text messages were fired off across northern Japan warning people in the missile's flight path to take cover.

Trains were delayed as passengers were urged to seek shelter inside stations.

"All lines are experiencing disruption," said one sign on Sapporo's metro system. "Reason: Ballistic missile launch."

The last time a North Korean rocket overflew Japan was in 2009, when Pyongyang said it was a satellite launch. Washington, Seoul and Tokyo believed it was a clandestine test of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).

Pyongyang last month carried out two overt ICBM tests that appeared to bring much of the US mainland within reach for the first time and heightened strains in the region.

At the time, US President Donald Trump issued an apocalyptic warning of raining "fire and fury" on the North, while Pyongyang threatened to fire a salvo of missiles towards the US territory of Guam.

South Korea said the latest missile was launched from Sunan, near Pyongyang and flew around 2,700 kilometres (1,700 miles) at a maximum altitude of around 550 kilometres.

Guam is about 3,500 kilometres from North Korea -- although the missile was fired in an easterly direction and not towards the US outpost, home to 160,000 people and host to major military facilities.

Abe said the overflight was an "outrageous act" that "greatly damages regional peace and security".

In a 40-minute telephone call with Trump, he said, the two allies had agreed to "further strengthen pressure against North Korea".

Robert Wood, US Permanent Representative to the Conference on Disarmament at the UN in Geneva labelled it "another provocation" that was "a big concern".

But China, the North's key ally and main trading partner, urged restraint on all sides, with foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying saying the situation had reached a "tipping point" but warning pressure and sanctions "cannot fundamentally solve the issue".

Russia, which also has ties to Pyongyang, said it was "extremely worried", hitting out at a "tendency towards escalation".

- 'Not a chicken' -

Any launch towards Guam would have to pass over Japan first and analysts said Tuesday's overflight presents a major challenge to both Tokyo and Washington.

Before 2009, the only time it had traversed Japanese airspace was in 1998, in what it also claimed it was a space launch. The US said it was a Taepodong-1 missile.

Pyongyang says it needs nuclear weapons to protect itself against the US, and the firing comes during the annual Ulchi Freedom Guardian South Korean-US joint military exercise, which the North always condemns as rehearsals for invasion.

Euan Graham, of the Lowy Institute in Australia, said that a launch towards Guam would have been a "red line" for Washington, and instead Pyongyang selected a "half-way-house option".

"The North Koreans in a way are being quite clever, by asking a difficult question of a key ally in the western Pacific (Japan) but at the same time not ratcheting up tensions to the point where the United States would seriously consider military measures," he told AFP.

They were also "demonstrating they have the control over the cycle of escalation," he added.

After Pyongyang appeared to postpone the Guam scheme, Trump told a rally in Phoenix that Kim was "starting to respect us".

As a result, according to Cha Du-Hyeogn of the Asan Institute of Policy Studies in Seoul: "It looked like North Korea backed off from a game of chicken.

"But Pyongyang is showing that is not how it is," he said. "That it is not a chicken, it has not backed off and that Washington is the one who is bluffing with no concrete plan."

- 'Horrible day' -

Japan has in the past vowed to shoot down North Korean missiles or rockets that threaten to hit its territory.

But it made no attempt to do so on Tuesday -- when the missile flew over the country for two minutes -- with defence minister Itsunori Onodera saying generals believed it posed no risk to the country.

"Today is really quite a horrible day for Japan," security commentator Ankit Panda said on Twitter following Tuesday's overflight.

"If North Korea assesses the costs of overflying Japan to be *anything* but intolerable, we'll see more of these kinds of tests."

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North Korea fires short-range missiles: US military
Seoul (AFP) Aug 26, 2017
North Korea fired three short-range ballistic missiles Saturday, the US military said, reviving tensions with Washington after President Donald Trump had said Pyongyang was starting to show some "respect". The launches come as tens of thousands of South Korean and US troops take part in joint military drills in the south of the peninsula, which the North views as highly provocative. Foll ... read more

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