The 21-year-old man, surnamed Cheung, was hit by a coffin on Saturday, local media said.

Cheung was found unconscious five minutes after he entered the attraction, Ocean Park chief executive Matthias Li said Saturday, expressing “deep sorrow” over the tragedy.

He was confirmed dead in hospital, police said.

“Buried Alive” is part of a Halloween-themed festival at Ocean Park running from October 5 to 31.

The park’s website said visitors would “experience being buried alive alone, before fighting their way out of their dark and eerie grave”.

Visitors are supposed to get inside a coffin-turned-slide, local media said, and slip through into the haunted house where they would experience what the park’s website described as “a rocky maze filled with dreadful ghouls”.

Hong Kong’s government said it believed Cheung entered the house safely but wandered off into a restricted area where he was struck by machinery.

The victim was “believed to have entered into an area for mechanical operations that was not open to visitors and was hit by a mechanical part”, a statement said.

Police said an investigation was ongoing.

Cheung was friends with an employee of a Swire Group subsidiary and had visited Ocean Park as part of an annual staff event organised by the company, the South China Morning Post reported.

The government has ordered the closure of “Buried Alive” until further notice.

More than 400,000 Rohingya Muslims have now arrived in Bangladesh from their Buddhist dominated homeland to escape violence that the United Nations says could be ethnic cleansing.

According to the UN, more than half of the refugees are children, and more than 1,100 have arrived alone after trekking mud roads and hills for days.

“That number could rise beyond one million by the end of the year if the influx continues, including about 600,000 children, according to UN agencies,” Mark Pierce, the Bangladesh chief of Save the Children charity, said.

The UN has also said it was possible that all the estimated 1.1 million Rohingya could flee Rakhine.

Bangladesh and relief agencies are struggling to cope with new arrivals sheltering on roadsides, hills and open spaces close to existing camps around Cox’s Bazar, which borders Myanmar.

Aid agencies have said thousands of Rohingya were half-starving and a major health emergency could break out.

Bangladesh has announced it will build 14,000 shelters for some 400,000 refugees but has said it was also readying a desolate island where many could be relocated.

Pierce said his group was particularly worried about the traumatised children and orphans who have arrived alone in Bangladesh.

“This is a real concern as these children are in an especially vulnerable position, being at increased risk of exploitation and abuse, as well as things like child trafficking,” he said.

“Some children have witnessed violence and killing. Some have been shot at, others have seen their homes set on fire. Some have reportedly watched their parents being killed,” he said.

The charity said it is setting up safe spaces in the camps for vulnerable children.

They would receive 24-hour support and protection while attempts are made to find family members, it said.

Bangladesh authorities say they are also preparing special measures to care for Rohingya orphans.

The military says its “clearance operations” in northern Rakhine state are aimed at taking out Rohingya militants who attacked police posts on August 25.

But the violence has engulfed the border region and triggered an exodus of more than 400,000 Rohingya to Bangladesh, where they have told of soldiers slaughtering civilians and burning down entire villages.

UN leaders have described the campaign as having all the hallmarks of “ethnic cleansing” of the Rohingya, a stateless group that has endured years of persecution and repression.

The status of the Muslim minority has long been an explosive topic in Myanmar.

Many in the Buddhist majority view the group as foreign interlopers from Bangladesh and deny the existence of a Rohingya ethnicity, insisting they be called “Bengalis”.

General Min Aung Hlaing, Myanmar’s globe-trotting army chief, trumpeted that view in comments posted on his official Facebook page Saturday.

“They have demanded recognition as Rohingya, which has never been an ethnic group in Myanmar. (The) Bengali issue is a national cause and we need to be united in establishing the truth,” the post said.

The defence of his army’s operations comes amid strident global condemnation of the violence, which has left Bangladesh with the overwhelming task of providing shelter and food to a rising tide of desperate refugees.

Myanmar’s civilian leader, former democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi, has no power to control the army, which retains sweeping powers from its years of junta rule.

But she has been castigated for failing to voice sympathy for the Rohingya — a group she has asked her government to refer to only as “Muslims of Rakhine state”.

All eyes will be on the Nobel laureate as she addresses the nation on the crisis for the first time Tuesday, a high-stakes speech that many outside the country hope will explain her near silence on the human tragedy that is unfolding.

The US has dispatched an envoy to Myanmar to express its “grave concern” with the violence in Rakhine, a US State Department official told AFP.

Patrick Murphy, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Southeast Asia, will meet with government leaders and travel to the state capital of Rakhine but not the conflict zone further north, the official said.

The US was a key partner in pushing along Myanmar’s democratic transition, which saw the army step down from 50 years of brutal junta rule and allow the free elections in 2015 that swept Suu Kyi into office.

The army still plays a powerful role in politics, with control over key ministries like borders and defence, plus a quarter of parliament.

Suu Kyi’s supporters inside the country, where she still enjoys saint-like status for her democracy struggle, have balked at the global criticism heaped on their leader and argued she must tread carefully around a military that still looms large in the fragile democracy.

 The talks will not be easy. New financial resources would help develop environments capable of handling the rapidly increasing number of foreign tourists, but new financial burdens could bring protests from tourists and the tourism industry.

At the start of the panel’s first meeting on Friday, Japan Tourism Agency Commissioner Akihiko Tamura emphasised the need to secure financial resources. “We need to implement high-level policy measures aimed at 2020 and 2030,” Tamura said. “We need to discuss how to raise financial resources.”

The agendas of the panel’s discussions are expected to include:

■ Should taxation be used to secure financial resources, or other methods, such as fee-based measures?

■ How should the raised funds be spent?

■ What is the appropriate amount, one likely not to affect the number of inbound tourists?

The agency believes it would be difficult to collect funds only from foreign nationals, so Japanese people are expected to be included in the new system. One possible method that has been suggested is taxing the use of hotels or other accommodations. However, most hotel guests are Japanese, so this could give rise to a sense of unfairness.

As a result, another strong candidate has become a system in which both Japanese and foreign nationals are charged when they depart Japan for other countries.

This is different from a so-called exit tax in which wealthy individuals who hold more than ¥100 million in stocks and other financial assets are taxed on the latent profits as income tax when they immigrate overseas.

The panel will hear from people in such fields as tourism and the airline industry while studying similar cases in other countries. The agency hopes to come up with its basic position in early November.

If the agency wants to establish a departure tax, it will coordinate with other government offices so that the new tax will be included in the next tax reform outlines to be compiled by year-end.

Wireless LAN, signs lacking

The number of inbound visitors to Japan tripled to 24.04 million in 2016 from 7.33 million in 2006.

The Japan Tourism Agency is exploring new financial resources because the country is lagging behind in developing environments to receive rapidly increasing inbound visitors.

For example, many tourist spots are not furnished with free wireless LAN, and there are not enough information signs in various foreign languages. The agency wants to secure financial resources to introduce such items to receive inbound visitors.

The raised funds are also to be used in promotional projects overseas, as part of efforts to realise the government’s goal to increase the number of inbound visitors to 40 million in 2020 and 60 million in 2030.

“Several tens of billions of yen will be needed” to pay for such matters, a senior agency official said. Therefore, a levy of ¥1,000 to ¥2,000 per person is expected.

Currently the number of Japanese leaving Japan and inbound foreigners totals 40 million per year. If ¥1,000 is collected from each individual as they depart, that translates to ¥40 billion — about double the agency’s fiscal 2016 initial budget.

However, some parties concerned have expressed caution and the panel’s discussions may see rough going. “Travelers would see it as higher travel fares, which could put a brake on people’s eagerness to visit Japan,” an airline industry official said. “That would be a serious issue for low-cost carriers.”

“It would be the tail wagging the dog if taxing visitors leads to a decrease in foreign tourists,” the agency official said.

James Khoo has had his work cut out for him lately.

The hiring executive at Ultra Clean Asia Pacific is rushing to fill about 30 positions, mostly related to assembling machine parts or troubleshooting systems.

“Currently, we’re expanding. We have a lot of prospects coming up, and we need people who are qualified to take up the roles, especially technicians,” said Khoo.

His company – a unit of global semiconductor, medical technology and industrial equipment multinational Ultra Clean Holdings – is among those that have benefited from a turnaround in the factory sector this year.

Manufacturing, which makes up one-fifth of the economy, is being lifted by strong global demand for semiconductors and related equipment. The sector grew at a robust 8.1 per cent in the second quarter from a year earlier, following an 8.5 per cent expansion in the first quarter.

Yet, despite this pickup, factories have not been employing more workers. In fact, employment in manufacturing fell by 2,500 jobs in the April to June period – the 11th consecutive quarter of decline.

The manufacturing sector employed 498,400 people last year – almost evenly split between local and foreign workers – compared with 540,300 in 2013.

The net jobs loss has led to a flood of applicants when vacancies crop up. In late July, a walk-in hiring exercise at consumer giant 3M’s Tuas manufacturing plant drew more than 1,000 job seekers for several dozen production positions.

Across the sector, entry-level and digitally skilled workers are in high demand, even as traditional mid-level roles get squeezed.

Uneven Growth

Some industry segments are faring better than others, reflecting uneven growth across different parts of the manufacturing sector.

While electronics-makers have seen business boom, marine and offshore engineering has been hit hard by low oil prices, and companies are still reeling from the impact.

Tens of thousands of jobs were axed as the sector suffered a string of high-profile bond defaults.

Diploma holder Henry Lee, 52, was laid off in July from his role as a technician, after having to leave another company a year ago when it shuttered. “This is my fourth job fair… because the petrochemical line is on a downsizing (trend),” he said at a job fair organised by NTUC’s Employment and Employability Institute last month.

He used to draw a monthly salary of more than $3,000, he said, but found that companies now tend to be on the lookout either for entry-level workers or degree holders.

Noting that many openings are in precision engineering and the semiconductor industry, he added: “Because I’ve been working in the petrochemical industry for the past 20 years, (employers) are unable to match the pay.”

Job prospects also vary depending on whether workers are professionals, managers, executives and technicians (PMETs) or rank and file. The share of local PMET jobs in manufacturing has risen over the years, hitting 62.2 per cent last year.

“Many of the PMET (job losses) are due to the restructuring of the economy,” said Cheng Hing Nan, a senior career coach at government agency Workforce Singapore’s Careers Connect centre. “For PMETs, if they do a career switch, they would see a reduction in their pay.”

Rank-and-file workers remain sought after, he added, as their skills are more easily transferable.

Institute of Technical Education student Yu Chun Hsien, 23, walked in on a whim to the same job fair as Lee and promptly landed a job as a wafer fabrication technician, with a basic pay of $1,200 to $1,500 a month. Yu, who is graduating with a Nitec in electronics, computer networking and communications in December, said: “I’m okay with any job that’s available.”

Fundamental Shifts

But the changes in manufacturing employment go beyond ups and downs in the business cycle.

The numbers also reflect seismic shifts in the way factories are structured, experts said, as technology changes the way work is done. Manufacturers have invested in automation and new technologies, so fewer workers are needed in factories.

Lim Kok Kiang, assistant managing director at the Economic Development Board (EDB), told The Straits Times: “The manufacturing sector will be facing huge changes ahead, as new technologies such as 3D printing and robotics are fusing with digital technology such as artificial intelligence to give rise to advanced manufacturing.”

OCBC Bank head of treasury research and strategy Selena Ling agreed: “There are some structural shifts… that fundamentally change the role that physical manpower plays in the industry. A pharmaceutical plant, for instance, may hire very few workers, but very highly skilled ones.” Conversely, she said, lower-end manufacturing activities may opt to leave the country.

Economist Tan Khay Boon, a senior lecturer at SIM Global Education, said: “The decline in job creation is partially due to weaker demand and partially due to automation replacing the manpower.”

More than 70 per cent of manufacturing jobs shed in the past three years were held by foreign work permit holders, government statistics show. That partly reflects initiatives such as the Lean Enterprise Development scheme to get small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to raise productivity and focus on offering Singaporeans better jobs.

New Roles

As digitalisation overhauls the industry, new and higher-value roles involve working with more complex technology.

David Ong, senior director of communications at semiconductor maker Infineon Technologies Asia Pacific, said: “Smart manufacturing initiatives like automation have direct impact on job scopes of engineers, technicians and operators. The introduction of new workflow, technology and robotics, for example, requires new skill sets in troubleshooting and operating a variety of man-machine interfaces.”

For example, he said, existing workers will have to learn how to operate and maintain advanced robotics-integrated systems.

At Makino Asia, which has added about 25 employees in the past four months, chief executive Neo Eng Chong said: “We’re also trying to put in place, connect up the (automated) systems – but we face another problem. That is the hiring of scientists.”

The machine-maker is looking for traditional engineers and technicians to meet a rise in business volume, but also needs skilled workers who can handle digitalisation’s information flow as data scientists and analysts. “It’s not easy to get talent,” said Neo.

Chee Teck Lee, founder and chief executive of home-grown optics manufacturer Moveon Technologies, also relies heavily on advanced manufacturing machines to produce ever-smaller lenses and devices. About half of Moveon’s 100 or so workers in Singapore work directly on the floor.

Such equipment is “not equipment where you press a button and it runs. You need to do programming, you need to do materials evaluation”, said Chee. “So what we are in need of right now are people who have very multidisciplinary skill sets – for example, optics engineers with materials background.”

Slow March of Progress

As the economy retools, a slew of workforce initiatives is under way, such as Professional Conversion Programmes for PMETs and Place-and-Train schemes for others. EDB’s Lim also noted that ongoing Industry Transformation Maps include Skills Framework components.

Companies will realise that they have no choice but to keep up with the high-tech trend, said Singapore Manufacturing Federation secretary-general Lam Joon Khoi. “The reality is that there has been a global shift towards the digitalisation of manufacturing and businesses must transform or be left behind.”

Despite growing pains, he is optimistic that manufacturing workers will live to see another day, in the new jobs created to fill technological roles. “The encouragement by the Government for SMEs to go global and grow their market abroad will also create new jobs to support such ventures.”

Friday morning’s blast, which left 29 people injured, was Britain’s fifth terror attack in six months and was claimed by the Islamic State group.

Prime Minister Theresa May announced late Friday that the threat level had been raised to “critical”, and said troops would take over guarding key sites to free police officers for deployment elsewhere.

The explosion at Parsons Green station in south-west London sparked a “wall of fire” that left passengers with burns and caused a stampede of panicking people in which some were trampled.

No-one has yet been arrested over the bombing, but anti-terrorism police chief Mark Rowley said the investigation was making “really good progress”.

“We’re chasing down suspects,” he told reporters.

“Somebody has planted this improvised explosive device on the Tube. We have to be open-minded at this stage about him and potential associates.”

May said military personnel would take over guard duty at certain closed “protected sites”, freeing up 1,000 police officers to be deployed on the transport network and on streets across Britain.

The country was last on critical alert after the bombing at a concert in Manchester in May, which was also claimed by the IS group.

In a statement Friday, the group said an IS “detachment” had carried out the London attack.

Rowley earlier said most of the injuries were due to “flash burns”, while others were wounded as passengers ran out of the station in panic.

Witness Charlie Craven told AFP he heard a “massive bang”, adding: “I saw an orange sort of fireball encompassing the whole Tube coming towards you.”

Another, Lauren Hubbard, described it as “a wall of fire”.

Twitter user @Rrigs posted pictures of a white bucket smouldering on the train and described how a “fireball flew down carriage and we just jumped out open door”.

The bucket, which was inside a frozen food bag from the budget supermarket chain Lidl, looked like the type used by builders and there appeared to be cables coming out of it.

‘Unhelpful speculation’

US President Donald Trump said that “loser terrorists” were behind the attack, adding that they were already “in the sights” of British police.

London’s Metropolitan Police dismissed the tweet as “unhelpful speculation”, while May also rebuked him.

“I never think it’s helpful for anybody to speculate on what is an ongoing investigation,” she said, speaking after an emergency meeting of senior ministers.

May said the device was “clearly intended to cause significant harm”, condemning it as a “cowardly attack”.

Speaking on Friday evening, Rowley said the remnants of the bomb were being examined by forensic scientists.

British media reported that it had a timer but failed to detonate fully.

Hans Michels, a professor of chemical engineering at Imperial College, said the flash flame “suggests that the explosion was only partly successful”.

“Much of the bucket still seems to be intact and there appear to be no victims with lethal impact wounds,” he said.

Armed police on patrol

Twenty-nine victims were treated in hospital, although health authorities said none were in a serious life-threatening condition, and eight were released on Friday.

Louis Hather, 21, had been travelling to work and was three carriages down from where the explosion took place.

“I could smell the burning. Like when you burn plastic,” he told AFP.

He was trampled on as passengers stampeded out of the station and his leg was badly cut and bruised.

Sally Faulding, a 51-year-old teacher, said: “People were falling over each other.”

Richard Aylmer-Hall, 52, told the Press Association: “There was panic, lots of people shouting, screaming, lots of screaming.”

The area around Parsons Green station — a quiet and wealthy residential district, filled with chic cafes — was evacuated for most of the day.

Local residents and businesses rallied together to offer tea, phone charging points, and the use of their toilets to people unable to get home.

Four previous attacks in London and Manchester this year claimed the lives of 35 people.

Three of those attacks involved a vehicle ploughing into pedestrians.

The other attack was a bombing in May at a pop concert by US star Ariana Grande in Manchester which killed 22 people, including several children.

At present, there are about 94,000 Lao workers in Thailand whose temporary work permits and passports have expired but who have temporary identity cards. There are about 71,000 Lao workers with work permits.

Acting Director General of the Department of Labour Skill Development and Employment under the Lao Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare, Ms Anousone Khamsingsavath, Thursday explained the situation after the signing of an agreement in Bangkok, Thailand, on September 9-10 concerning assistance for Lao workers in Thailand.

Under this agreement, Laos will open assistance centres in seven locations in Vientiane and neighbouring provinces of Thailand. The centres will operate from next month until the end of this year. Centres will be set up in Champassak, Saravan, Savannakhet, Khammuan and Xayaboury.

Lao workers returning from Thailand will be able to register at these centres and acquire new passports so they can be legally re-employed in Thailand, Ms Anousone said.

The agreement continues on from an earlier one signed between Laos and Thailand in Luang Prabang province in July on the setting up of a centre in Thailand to upgrade the status of Lao nationals who had work permits, she added. The centre will extend the work permits and passports held by Lao nationals working in Thailand, and provide assistance for Lao workers who cannot return home to register in Laos.

Director General of the Employment Department under Thailand’s Ministry of Labour, Mr Waranan Pitiwan, said the Thai government would open centres in Bangkok to help Lao workers who held a valid passport but whose temporary work permit had expired.

The Thai government would extend the work permits and help workers to apply for the necessary documents including work permits, after confirming their nationality with their country of origin.

Foreign workers may be able to get jobs in certain industries such as garment production, but could not make hand-crafted traditional Thai costumes which the law interprets as cultural conservation and is only open to Thai nationals.

Doksuri, the 10th storm arising in the East Sea so far this year, caused five deaths and dozens of injuries in six hours in Vietnam yesterday.

The typhoon caused winds of up to 135kmph, cutting power to many localities and affecting 1.3 million people. Thousands of houses were destroyed and power and telecommunications networks were damaged. Thirty three Vietnam Airlines and Vietjet Air flights from Ha Noi to HCM City, Vinh, Dong Hoi and Thanh Hoa were cancelled. Vietnam Railways also cancelled seven passenger trains and five cargo trains at stations in Ha Tinh and Quang Binh provinces.

In Ha Tinh, the storm caused heavy losses, especially in localities near its eye such as Ky Anh Town.

An initial report revealed that more than 23,000 houses had their roofs blown off, while nine villages were submerged.

Phan Duy Vinh, Vice Chairman of the Ky Anh Town People’s Committee, said that 80 per cent of houses, schools and health stations were damaged.

Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung led a working group to Ha Tinh Province to supervise the storm and flood control and prevention.

In Nghe An Province, authorities of Cua Lo Town, a popular tourist beach destination, have already made plans to relocate 1,062 households with 4,506 residents to safer areas.

In Quynh Long Commune of Quynh Luu District, the water level is increasing dramatically and strong waves are hitting the local dam, fueling concerns it will fail.

The province is also urging its people to avoid going outside in heavy winds and rain, so they do not fall victim to accidents caused by falling trees, electrical poles and wires. By 3pm yesterday, many roads in Nghe An were underwater, completely paralysing traffic.

Meanwhile, the roofs of about 500 houses in Loc Ha District and 169 others in Cam Xuyen District were ripped off by strong winds, along with floods in many places.

In central Thua Thien-Hue Province, a house collapsed and 608 others lost their roofs. At the same time, serious erosion affected 700m of sea dyke in Hai Thanh Village of Thuan An Town and some other localities, forcing 410 households with 1,424 locals to move to safe areas.

According to the provincial flood prevention agency, province-wide, 583ha of rice have not yet been harvested and are expected to be lost completely following this storm. Meanwhile, 6,400 fish cages, mostly in Phu Loc District and Phu Vang, are being safeguarded.

Nguyen Van Cao, chairman of Thua Thien–Hue Province People’s Committee, said water levels across reservoirs and hydropower dams in the province are at a safe level and no construction is underway.

Cao added that 100 tonnes of rice, 100 tonnes of instant noodles, 100,000 litres of petrol, 100,000 litres of diesel and 30,000 litres of oil have been prepared in case the storm lasts several days.

In central Quang Binh, the storm left one dead and six injured. It also destroyed 13 homes, unroofed 49,155 houses and flooded 1,500 others. More than 1,000 hectares of rubber trees were also damaged, while many streets were blocked by flooding.

Total loss in Quang Binh is estimated at nearly VND1.8 trillion (US$79.21 million).

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc yesterday canceled work in the southern provinces to fly to Quang Binh Province to inspect the situation and instruct the locality to overcome the consequences of the typhoon.

The PM asked local authorities to mobilise all forces to repair houses for people, so nobody is left homeless.

After the visit, Phuc had a working session with key leaders of Quang Binh Province in the evening to assess the damage and the work of overcoming the consequences of the storm.

The typhoon is forecast to move towards central Laos and weaken to a low pressure system, according to the National Centre for Hydro-meteorological Forecasting (NCHMF).

The centre reported that at 5pm yesterday, the storm’s eye was in the Vietnam-Laos border area with maximum wind speeds of 52km per hour.

In the last two days, the typhoon, said to be the strongest in a decade, brought heavy rains to central provinces from Thanh Hoa to Quang Ngai with rainfall of 100-200mm and even 300mm in some areas, along with gusts of up to 80-100km per hour.

Today and tomorrow, major floods could occur at rivers in the central region, posing a high risk of flashfloods, landslides, and local floods in the Hoa Binh, Son La, Thanh Hoa and Thua Thien–Hue provinces. Ha Noi is also forecast to see torrential rain and strong winds.

North Korea fired the intermediate-range ballistic missile over Japan that landed in the Pacific, responding to new UN sanctions with its furthest-ever missile flight.

In a unanimous statement backed by China, the council said the launch was carried out just three weeks after a first missile overflew Japan and less than two weeks after Pyongyang’s sixth and biggest nuclear test.

The council “strongly condemned these launches, condemned further the DPRK for its outrageous actions, and demanded that the DPRK immediately cease all such actions.”

The statement, released after a closed-door meeting, did not threaten further sanctions and stressed that all countries must “fully, comprehensively and immediately” be implemented.

The launch came days after the council slapped fresh sanctions on the isolated country in response to the nuclear test on September 3.

In Washington, the White House announced Trump will meet with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korea’s Moon Jae-in in New York Thursday.

“As Kim Jong-Un’s most recent launch demonstrates, this is one of the world’s most urgent and dangerous security problems,” US National Security Advisor H.R McMaster said.

North Korea will dominate the diplomatic agenda when world leaders gather at the United Nations next week for the annual high-level General Assembly debate.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he plans to hold talks with all sides on the crisis, including with North Korea’s Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho, who will address the General Assembly Friday.

Calls for talks

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron jointly appealed for talks with North Korea, saying this was the only way to resolve tensions over its nuclear program.

The crisis requires resolution “exclusively through political and diplomatic means, by restarting direct negotiations,” a Kremlin statement said following a phone call between the leaders.

The appeal was directed at the United States and Japan, countries calling to ramp up pressure through sanctions rather than pin hopes on talks.

Russia and China, North Korea’s main ally, on Monday backed a US-drafted resolution at the Security Council to impose fresh sanctions on Pyongyang — but they maintain dialogue is key to defuse the crisis.

Washington has rejected as “insulting” a proposal from China to kick-start talks with a freeze on North Korea’s nuclear and missile tests in exchange for a suspension of US-South Korean drills.

The sanctions imposed on Monday banned the North’s textile trade, stopped new work permits for its laborers, and imposed restrictions on shipments of oil products, among other measures.

Furthest so far

The US Pacific Command confirmed Friday’s rocket was an intermediate range ballistic missile (IRBM) and said it did not pose a threat to North America or to the US Pacific territory of Guam, which Pyongyang has threatened to bracket with “enveloping fire”.

Seoul’s defense ministry said it probably traveled around 3,700 kilometers (2,300 miles) and reached a maximum altitude of 770 kilometers.

Physicist David Wright, of the Union of Concerned Scientists, said: “North Korea demonstrated that it could reach Guam with this missile, although the payload the missile was carrying is not known” and its accuracy was in doubt.

The North has raised global tensions with its rapid progress in weapons technology under leader Kim Jong-Un, who is regularly pictured by state media overseeing launches and visiting facilities.

The North’s last missile launch, a Hwasong-12 IRBM just over two weeks ago, also overflew Japan’s main islands and was the first to do so for years.

‘Missile launch!’

Millions of Japanese were jolted awake by blaring sirens and emergency text message alerts.

“Missile launch! missile launch! A missile appears to have been launched from North Korea,” loudspeakers blared on Cape Erimo, on Hokkaido’s southern tip.

Breakfast television programs replaced their usual light-hearted diet of children’s shows and gadget features with the warning: “Flee into a building or a basement.”

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Tokyo could “never tolerate” what he called a “dangerous provocative action that threatens world peace”.

The missile was said to have overflown the US ally for around two minutes.

In response to the launch, South Korea’s military immediately carried out a ballistic missile drill of its own, with the defense ministry saying it took place while the North’s rocket was still airborne.

President Moon Jae-In told an emergency meeting of Seoul’s national security council that dialogue with the North was “impossible in a situation like this”.