Japan's Ministry of Defense announced at 8:03 a.m. JST on January 4 a possible ballistic missile launch by North Korea, as reported by NHK News during the reporting window from 9:15 p.m. UTC on January 3 to 12:15 a.m. UTC on January 4. NHK News broke the story citing the Ministry of Defense statement on the potential missile activity from North Korea. The announcement occurred within the three-hour period covering early morning hours in Japan. No further details on the launch trajectory, impact areas, or confirmatory data were provided in the initial Ministry announcement, according to the NHK report sourced from a UN_NERV post on X.
