Japan stands by cancelled missile alert sent to millions of residents

Japan on Thursday stood by a North Korean missile launch warning that led millions of residents to take cover from debris that most likely fell into the sea hundreds of miles away, saying “safety is our top priority”.
The alert just before 8 a.m. on Thursday triggered sirens on Hokkaido and sent automated messages to mobile phones in a system called J-Alert urging the northern island’s more than 5 million residents to seek immediate shelter after Pyongyang fired a new type of ballistic missile.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said, officials switched the alarm off at 8:16 a.m. after getting updated information about the missile’s trajectory. Japan’s coast guard said the missile had landed by 8:19 a.m.
Public broadcaster NHK, the coast guard and Fire and Disaster Management Agency (FDMA) described the cancelled alert as a “correction”, a characterisation Matsuno disputed.