North Korea's nerve gas missiles 'could hit Japan' PM warns

Meanwhile, Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe warned that Kim Jong-Un may already be capable of firing a missile loaded with sarin nerve gas toward Japan.

Multiple recent North Korean missile tests have landed in the waters off the coast of Japan, and last month, state news agency KCNA said units conducting the drills were "tasked to strike the bases of the USA imperialist aggressor forces in Japan".

Coming just days after the wrap-up of a meeting between President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping at the former's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, the report said that, absent pressure on North Korea from neighboring China, the US would strike Pyongyang, something the newswire's source said had become a realistic possibility.

South Korean officials said there were no new signs to indicate a test was more likely, although they also said the North appeared ready to conduct a test at any time.

The government held a meeting of the National Security Council Thursday afternoon to analyze the latest information on North Korea's movements, Suga said.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi says there would be no winners in an armed conflict between the USA and North Korea over Pyongyang's nuclear weapons and missile programs.

North Korea marks the 105th anniversary of the birth of state founder Kim Il Sung on Saturday, North Korea's biggest national day called "Day of the Sun". Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, however, denied any "imminent danger". But recently, Mr Abe's ruling party has proposed that Japan should bolster its missile defence, including upgrading the capability to shoot down an enemy missile and acquiring the capacity to attack the base it was sacked from. President Donald Trump has tweeted about his discussions with the Chinese leader Xi Jinping about curbing the isolated state's aggression. He said the United States and President Donald Trump were making trouble in the region, citing Trump's tweets and the US for moving an aircraft carrier into the region and for participating in its largest-ever joint military exercises with South Korea.

The statement from Pyongyang comes as tensions on the divided peninsula are high because of U.S.

A Japanese ruling party lawmaker and a government source said this week that coping with possible North Korean refugees would be among the matters for which Japan had to prepare.

Mr. Abe's remarks were made to highlight Japan's vulnerability to North Korean attack rather than to reveal new intelligence, a spokesman for him said.