2 Korean school students in Japan confronted by adult man over Pyongyang missile launches

Name: Raising the stakes: How North Korea became a nuclear state
Uploaded: 2022-11-03T12:30:19.000Z
Duration: 2 min 44 s
Description: Raising the stakes: How North Korea became a nuclear state

A day after Pyongyang fired a missile that flew over Japan, a man shouted at the students and demanded the boys tell the country ‘not to shoot missiles’

Japanese media have reported a rise in anti-Korean hate incidents in the country amid North Korea’s escalating military provocations

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A man walks past a public television screen in Tokyo on October 4, displaying file missile footage about an early morning North Korean missile launch which prompted an evacuation alert over northeastern Japan. Photo: AFP via Getty Images

SCMP’s Asia desk

Published: 8:30pm, 3 Nov 2022

A Japanese man angered over North Korea’s incessant missile launches accosted two students studying at a Korean school in the central city of Yokkaichi and verbally abused them.

Mie prefecture governor Katsuyuki Ichimi, who denounced the incident, vowed to speed up efforts to publicise his government’s anti-discrimination code after the resident demanded the boys tell the country “not to shoot missiles”.

“There is no point in telling children that. It’s virtually abuse,” Ichimi told reporters on Wednesday.

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Raising the stakes: How North Korea became a nuclear state

The students were on their way to Yokkaichi Korean primary and junior secondary school when the confrontation happened on October 5, a day after Pyongyang fired a ballistic missile that flew over Japan. The launch forced Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s government to issue evacuation alerts and halt trains.

According to the Mainichi newspaper, a man in a suit approached two boys and their teacher at a railway station close to the school in the morning. He later mouthed off to the pair: “Tell them not to shoot missiles.”

The school reached out to the local police to escort the students on their commute until October 8.

Japanese media have reported a rise in anti-Korean hate incidents in the country amid North Korea’s escalating military provocations.