North Korea has terminated a rocket over northern Japan in a move Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called an "extraordinary" risk to his nation.
The rocket, propelled at an opportune time Tuesday Korean time, flew over Hokkaido island before colliding with the ocean.
The UN Security Council is relied upon to hold a crisis meeting accordingly.
North Korea has led a whirlwind of rocket tests as of late, however this is the first occasion when it has shot what is believed to be a ballistic weapon over Japan.
On the two past events its rockets crossed Japan - in 1998 and 2009 - North Korea said they were for satellite dispatch vehicles, not weapons.
The BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes in Tokyo says this most recent dispatch seems, by all accounts, to be the first of a rocket sufficiently intense to conceivably convey an atomic warhead.
Inhabitants advised to look for protect
The South Korean military said the rocket was terminated eastbound just before 06:00 nearby time (21:00 GMT) from close to the North's capital, Pyongyang - which is uncommon.
Early investigation of the dispatch recommends the rocket:
flew a separation of more than 2,700km (1,678 miles)
was likely a Hwasong-12, a recently created middle of the road run weapon
achieved a greatest elevation of around 550km (342 miles), lower than most past North Korean tests
fell into the North Pacific Ocean 1,180km off the Japanese drift in the wake of breaking into three pieces
Japan outline
No exertion was made by Japan to shoot down the rocket yet it issued a wellbeing cautioning advising natives in Hokkaido to take shield in "a durable building or cellar".
US and Japanese powers have quite recently completed a joint bore in Hokkaido while another yearly military exercise including a huge number of South Korean and US fighters is still under path in South Korea.
The North observes these general military drills including the US as profoundly provocative, seeing them as a practice for an attack.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in requested a show of "overpowering" power in light of the dispatch. Four South Korean planes organized a live bombarding drill on Tuesday.
