Elementary school students squat down on the
street as they participate in an evacuation
drill for local residents based on the scenario
that a ballistic missile launched landed in
Japanese waters, in Oga, Akita prefecture, Japan
March 17, 2017. Kyodo/via
Sirens blared and loudspeakers broadcast
warnings in Japan's first civilian missile
evacuation drill on Friday, conducted in a
fishing town by officials wary about the threat
of North Korean missiles.
The exercise comes more than a week
after North Korea launched four ballistic
missiles into the sea off Japan's northwest
coast, with one rocket landing about 200 km (124
miles)from the town of Oga.
Friday's drill played out a scenario
in which North Korea had fired a ballistic
missile on the Japanese islands.
"The missile is seen to have landed
within a 20-km (12-mile) boundary west of the
Oga peninsula," a speaker blared during the
evacuation. "The government is currently
examining the damage." (For a graphic on missile
evacuation drill in Oga, Japan, click
tmsnrt.rs/2ngq11y)
Residents of the largely rural
peninsula jutting into the ocean about 450 km
(280 miles) north of the capital, Tokyo, made
their way to a designated evacuation center
equipped with emergency kits and protective
gear.
Schoolchildren in another part of
town crouched down to the ground before hurrying
inside a gymnasium.
"I've seen missiles flying between
foreign countries on television, but I never
imagined this would happen to us," said Hideo
Motokawa, a 73-year-old who participated in the
drill.
Officials said the exercise was
prompted by growing concern about the regional
security situation.
"Anything can happen these days, and
it's even more true when we cannot anticipate
the behavior of our neighboring countries," said
Osamu Saito, a security supervisor in the
prefecture of Akita where Oga is located.
North Korea is also developing
nuclear-tipped missiles, in defiance of U.N.
Security Council resolutions and sanctions, and
conducting nuclear tests in what U.S. Secretary
of State Rex Tillerson described during a visit
to Japan as an "ever-escalating threat."
Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary
Yoshihide Suga told reporters on Friday the
missile drill was worthwhile, to help educate
the public.
Some Oga residents worried about how
they would react in a real attack.
"It's a scary thing," said
participant Emiko Shinzoya, 73. "If it did
actually happen, I don't think we can do what we
practiced today. We'll just be panicked."
(Writing by Elaine Lies; Editing by
Darren Schuettler and Clarence Fernandez)
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http://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-missiles-japan-drill-idUSKBN16O0TG