Was Japan’s Shinzo Abe behind a false North Korea missile alert, as Seoul media claimed?

The Korea Times suggested that last week’s alert was intentionally sent as part of the Abe administration’s ‘hostile stance’ towards Pyongyang

Japanese national broadcaster NHK issued a retraction and apology six minutes after the alert was sent on Friday

Reading Time:4 minutes

A Korea Times editorial hinting that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ordered national broadcaster NHK to issue a false alert for a North Korean missile has been criticised as “ridiculous”. Photo: AP

Published: 1:50pm, 31 Dec 2019Updated: 2:00pm, 31 Dec 2019

An editorial in a South Korean newspaper hinting that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ordered national broadcaster NHK to issue a false alert for a North Korean missile has been criticised as “ridiculous” and another attempt to deflect domestic attention from Seoul’s economic problems.

The editorial appeared on the website of The Korea Times on December 27, just hours after NHK sent out an erroneous alert through its website and news app, stating that a North Korean missile had landed in the Pacific Ocean around 2,000km east of Cape Erimo on Hokkaido – indicating that the weapon had passed over Japan before splashing down.

The alert was issued 22 minutes after midnight and was followed six minutes later by a retraction and an apology on the NHK website. It did not appear on the broadcaster’s television channels.

In its apology, NHK said the alert had been sent out in error as part of a training exercise.

The Korea Times editorial pointed out that NHK made a similar error in January 2018, issuing a “J-alert” that North Korea had launched a missile. A number of NHK personnel were disciplined over that incident.

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