Tokyo says North Korea missile tests show ‘new level of threat’

North Korea’s test launch of four ballistic missiles Monday — three of which crashed into the Sea of Japan — prompted a swift and harsh reaction from Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who said the development showed that Pyongyang now represents a “a new level of threat” to Tokyo and the world.

In Washington, the Trump administration strongly condemned the launches, with State Department spokesman Mark Toner telling reporters that U.S. officials “are prepared to use the full range of capabilities at our disposal against this growing threat.”‎ ‎

While it was not immediately clear exactly what type of ballistic missiles were fired by the North Koreans, both Tokyo and Washington, as well as South Korea, said the launches were another clear violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions banning the North Koreans from any ballistic missile activity.

Japanese and South Korea officials said Monday’s projectiles flew about 620 miles from the North Korean mainland, with three landing in waters that Japan claims as its exclusive economic zone. At least one of the missiles crashed into the sea just 190 miles off Japan’s northwest coast, officials said.

The launches came roughly a month after North Korea had test-fired what intelligence officials later described as a new type of intermediate-range ballistic missile its own coast. The Feb. 12 test was the first major provocation by Pyongyang since U.S. President Donald Trump took office, and the test was carried out just as Mr. Trump was meeting with Mr. Abe in Florida.

Monday’s launches, meanwhile, appeared to be carried out in retaliation to large and ongoing U.S.-South Korean military drills that Pyongyang insists are an invasion rehearsal. Seoul and Washington call the drills on the Korean Peninsula defensive and routine, although the peninsula technically remains in a state of war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice and not a peace treaty.

The North hates the drills, which run until late April and which analysts say force Pyongyang’s impoverished military to respond with expensive deployments and drills of their own. An unidentified spokesman for the North’s General Staff of the Korean People’s Army said last week that Pyongyang’s reaction to the southern drills would be the toughest ever but didn’t elaborate.

The Associated Press reported Monday that Mr. Trump’s newly appointed national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, had spoken via telephone with his South Korean counterpart, Kim Kwan-jin, about the latest missile launches. The two condemned the action and agreed to boost cooperation to get the North to face more effective sanctions and pressure, according to South Korea’s presidential office.

Pyongyang has test-launched a series of missiles of various ranges in recent months, including a new intermediate-range missile in February; it also conducted two nuclear tests last year. The ramped-up tests come as leader Kim Jong-un pushes for a nuclear and missile program that can deter what he calls U.S. and South Korean hostility toward the North.

The Obama administration responded to Pyongyang’s nuclear tests last with a wave of economic sanctions that included coordinated participation from South Korea, Japan and — to a lesser degree — China. Then-President Barack Obama also moved toward a significant uptick in the U.S.-South Korean military alliance — most notably with the deployment of a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense system to South Korea, where roughly 30,000 U.S. troops are stationed.

The New York Times reported over the weekend that despite the Obama administration having also increased cyber and electronic strikes against North Korea’s missile program, Washington lacks an effective counter to Pyongyang’s actions.

In addition to the U.S. forces in South Korea, Washington also has roughly 50,000 troops stationed in Japan. While both are seen to be at risk of being targeted by North Korean missiles, there have been widespread worries that Pyongyang will eventually conduct an intercontinental ballistic missile test that — when perfected — could in theory reach the U.S. mainland.

Mr. Abe said Monday’s tests were “utterly intolerable” and noted Pyongyang’s accelerating technological advancements. The latest test firing “clearly shows that North Korea is now a new level of threat,” Mr. Abe said during a legislative session in Tokyo.

The Japan Times quoted a high-ranking official as saying that that four missiles were apparently fired simultaneously and from the same location, a development that could prove vexing for existing Japanese missile defenses.

There were also questions Monday about the timing of the launches. In addition to overlapping with the annual South Korean-U.S. military drills, The Japan Times noted the launches occurred just after the opening of China’s rubber-stamp parliament in Beijing — a gathering aimed at highlighting President Xi Jinping’s command over foreign and domestic affairs.

The Xi government recently triggered a biting reaction from North Korea, which shares a border with China and is Beijing’s traditional ally in the region, by announcing that it was suspending critical coal imports from the isolated nation through the end of the year.

• This article is based in part on wire service reports.