China has conducted a rare anti-ballistic missile test on Friday, Bloomberg is reporting based on China's defense ministry, which has been hailed as successful.
It's being described as a land-based, mid-course antiballistic missile technical test, which was of a "defensive nature" and didn't target any country, according to the military statement.
"It’s the fourth such test China has successfully conducted since 2018, according to a search on the ministry’s website," Bloomberg writes, noting further that the last such ballistic missile test was in June 2022.
China is meanwhile blaming rising tensions on the Korean peninsula on the "negative impact" of US military drills with the south.
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Wang Wenbin said in a Thursday press conference, "The current round of tension on the peninsula has its causes. The negative impact of the US military drills and deployment of strategic weapons around the peninsula is obvious to all," according to Agence France Presse.
Also on Thursday Japan had briefly issued, and then retracted, an emergency evacuation order for residents of the northernmost of Japan's main island.
"Evacuate immediately. Immediately evacuate inside the building or underground," the Thursday morning notification said. "The missile is expected to fall around Hokkaido around 08:00. Please evacuate immediately."
North Korea has been engaged in near-daily tests after the US last month kicked off weeks of major joint drills with South Korea. Pyongyang pledged a fierce and appropriate response.
