Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has said North Korea's submarine-launched ballistic missile(SLBM) test on Wednesday is a grave threat to Japan's security and an unforgivable act to regional peace and stability.
 
According to Kyodo News, Abe told reporters shortly after the launch that it is the first time that the North's SLBM fell inside Japan's air defense identification zone.
 
Abe said the launch is a clear violation of UN resolutions and that Tokyo has lodged protest with Pyongyang.
 
A Japanese Foreign Ministry official said separately that Tokyo sternly protested against the SLBM launch to the North through the Japanese Embassy in Beijing.
 
Of the two ballistic missiles that the North fired on August 3rd from the central western coastal county of Unryul, South Hwanghae Province, one flew some one-thousand kilometers before it landed in waters 250 kilometers west of Japan's Akita Prefecture, an exclusive economic zone(EEZ) of the island country. It was the first time that a North Korean ballistic missile entered Japan's EEZ.