North Korea has directed its people to hoist the national flag and watch a state message on TV on Sunday afternoon, a move possibly linked to Pyongyang's missile test.
TOKYO: North Korea has directed its people to hoist the national flag and watch a state message on television on Sunday afternoon, a move possibly linked to Pyongyang's missile test, a Japanese newspaper said.
The Sankei Shimbun, citing unnamed Japanese government sources, said that the country's national flag should be raised at 1030 IST (2:00 pm local time) and that people should watch the message Sunday evening.
Immediate confirmation of the report was not available. The report follows a series of other reports on Pyongyang's preparations for a long-range missile test this weekend.
On Sunday Japan warned North Korea it would see any test-fired missile that landed on Japanese soil as an attack.
Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso gave North Korea a blunt warning about its reported plans.
"If they failed and the missile dropped on ... Japan, things would be complicated," he said in an interview with Fuji Television. "It will be regarded as an attack."
Meanwhile, South Korea maintained the same level of military alert as usual on Sunday, officials said.
"The military is on the same level of alert as usual. There has been no upgrade in the military alert yet," a defence ministry spokesman said.
The spokesman declined to comment on North Korean preparations for the long-range missile test which Japanese and South Korean media reported had been planned for this weekend.
South Korea's cable television news YTN, citing an unnamed diplomatic source, said intelligence officials in Seoul, Tokyo and Washington drew a tentative conclusion that the missile test could come on Sunday.
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