TOKYO, June 21, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Japan has halted evacuation drills
simulating a North Korean missile attack in the wake of historic talks
between Washington and Pyongyang, local media reported Thursday.
Government officials did not immediately confirm the reports, but
authorities in one town told AFP they were suspending a drill planned for
next week on orders from Tokyo.
The decision comes after US President Donald Trump and North Korea’s leader
Kim Jong Un met last week in Singapore, with the pair signing a joint
document calling for denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.
Yaita in Tochigi prefecture north of Tokyo had been planning an evacuation
drill for next week involving some 800 residents including 350 school
children, city official Yutaka Yanagida told AFP.
But the city suddenly cancelled all preparations late Wednesday after being
instructed by the government that “drills should be postponed for the time
being following a change in the environment after the US-North Korea summit,”
he said.
Contacted by AFP, a Cabinet Office official said the government would
announce its policy on evacuation drills on Friday, declining to comment
further.
Last year, Pyongyang fired two missiles over Japan and it has splashed
others into the sea near the country, sparking a mix of panic and outrage.
Earlier this year, hundreds of Tokyo residents scrambled for cover in the
Japanese capital’s first evacuation drill for a military attack by Pyongyang.
North Korea has singled out Japan, a key US ally in the region, for verbal
attacks, threatening to “sink” the country into the sea and to turn it into
“ashes”.
But the regional mood has turned towards diplomacy since the Winter
Olympics hosted by South Korea, which set off a series of diplomatic moves
culminating in the Trump-Kim meet.