Tokyo (CNN) Japan will for the first time buy long-range missiles to counter the country's "increasingly severe" national security situation, Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera said. 
 
 "We will implement stand-off missiles capable of defending ourselves adequately, when we are outside the range of the opponent, in order to ensure the safety of the Self Defense Force and to defend our nation effectively," Onodera told reporters. 
 
 A spokesman from Onodera's office told CNN Japan will be purchasing two typesof missiles -- Long Range Anti-Ship Missiles and Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles -- from Lockheed Martin to put on its F-15 fighter jets. 
 
 It will also buy Joint Strike Missiles from the Norwegian company Kongsberg to be deployed on new, state-of-the-art F-35 stealth fighter jets which are just joining the Japan Air Self Defense Force fleet. 
 
 The spokesman also said Japan will be making an additional request in next year's budget to make the purchase. 
 
 Though Onodera did not mention North Korea by name in the announcement, Pyongyang's fast-progressing nuclear and missile programs have had Japan and other countries in East Asia on edge. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw the test-firing of two missiles that overflew northern Japan this year, which set off warning sirens. The United Nations passed the most punishing sanctions ever levied against North Korea shortly after. 
 
 "North Korea's advancements made it inevitable that Tokyo and Seoul would purchase standoff strike capabilities," Adam Mount, a senior fellow at the Federation of American Scientists, told CNN in an email. 
 
 "Standoff missiles will ensure that Japan has a credible response to attacks against its territory, which will help them deter these strikes in the first place." 
 
 The news of the purchase itself comes about a month after US President Donald Trump visited Tokyo and suggested Japan should buy US military equipment. 
 
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 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was re-elected by a landslide in October's national elections after campaigning on a platform to continue his tough approach toward Pyongyang. 
 
 In the face of an increasingly hostile North Korea, Abe set a deadline of 2020 to revise Japan's constitution, which contains language that bans the country's military from undertaking many offensive capabilities. The proposal is controversial because it strikes at the heart of the country's post-war identity. 
 
 The missiles purchased would give Japanese fighter jets the ability to strike ground- or sea-based targets of all its neighbors, including China. 
 
 "As we rush to respond to North Korea's advancements, almost nobody is thinking about the long-term implications for regional stability. These new capabilities will exacerbate China's worry that it is being encircled," said Mount. 
 
 China, which suffered heavily when the Japanese occupied parts of the country during World War II, is likely to view the purchases with unease. Tokyo and Beijing have long feuded over other regional issues, including the disputed ownership of uninhabited islands in the waters near both countries. 
 
 "The developments will surely cause new tensions with China," Mount said. 
 
 Experts believe that one of the key reasons Beijing opposes North Korea's development of nuclear weapons is the concern that it could fuel an arms race in the region, especially with Tokyo, a historic adversary. 
 
 Beijing was strongly opposed to South Korea's deployment of the US-built Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system, a defensive weapon designed to shoot down ballistic missiles before they can cause damage. Weapons experts believe China worried about the system's powerful radar, the coverage of which extends into Chinese territory. 
 
 The deployment led to a months-long freeze in relations between Seoul and Beijing, which was resolved in October. 
 
 'An established fact' 
 
 The North Korean threat to the United States and its allies has come back to the forefront after a brief lull in recent weeks. Pyongyang test-fired what is believed to be its most advanced long-range missile in the final days of November, demonstrating a range of more than 8,000 miles. 
 
 After the test, White House national security adviser HR McMaster said the chance of war with North Korea is increasing by the day. 
 
 This week , the US and South Korea conducted large-scale aerial military exercises involving hundreds of aircraft and thousands of troops. North Korea views these drills with hostility and worries they could be practice for a potential invasion. 
 
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 This week's exercises followed a large-scale naval exercise in November that saw three US Navy aircraft carriers drilling together in the Pacific for the first time in a decade. 
 
 "The large-scale nuclear war exercises conducted by the US in succession are creating touch-and-go situation on the Korean Peninsula and series of violent war remarks coming from the U.S. high-level politicians amid such circumstances have made an outbreak of war on the Korean Peninsula an established fact," a spokesman for North Korea's Foreign Minister said, according to state-run Korean Central News Agency. 
 
 "The remaining question now is: when will the war break out." ||||| Leaders agreed to call for an emergency meeting of the UN security council to discuss the launch 
 
 Donald Trump and Shinzo Abe have vowed to increase pressure on North Korea after the regime launched a missile over Japan on Tuesday morning. 
 
 The Japanese prime minister denounced the launch as an “unprecedented and grave threat” to the country’s security. In a 40-minute phone call with the US president they agreed to call for an emergency meeting of the UN security council to discuss the situation. 
 
 
 
 Living on the edge of oblivion: life along the North Korean border Read more 
 
 Officials in South Korea said the missile may have flown further than any other tested by North Korea. The test, one of the most provocative ever from the reclusive state, sent a clear message to Washington just weeks after Kim Jong-un threatened to target the US Pacific territory of Guam with similar intermediate-range missiles. 
 
 It also demonstrated the regime’s willingness to raise the diplomatic stakes by sending a missile directly over Japanese territory. Pyongyang has tested more powerful intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) this year, but Tuesday’s launch followed a much flatter trajectory than those tests. 
 
 Trump said the US was “100% with Japan” and repeated his strong commitment to the defence of Japan, Abe said shortly after the call. 
 
 
 
 “The outrageous act of firing a missile over our country is an unprecedented, serious and grave threat and greatly damages regional peace and security,” Abe told reporters in Tokyo, adding that his government had protested to Pyongyang via the Japanese embassy in Beijing. 
 
 The missile was the third fired by North Korea to have passed over Japanese territory. The first was in 1998 and the second in 2009, although Pyongyang claims they were satellites. 
 
 Abe said Japan would “strongly call for increased pressure on North Korea in cooperation with the international community” via the security council. 
 
 
 
 The missile, thought to be a new intermediate-range Hwasong-12, flew over Hokkaido and landed in the Pacific about 733 miles (1,180km) east of the northern Japanese island, South Korean and Japanese officials said. 
 
 The Hwasong-12 is the same type of missile North Korea recently threatened to launch towards Guam. 
 
 China called for restraint and warned that the situation on the Korean peninsular had reached “a tipping point approaching a crisis”. 
 
 Foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a daily press briefing in Beijing: “Think hard about it, who do you think should take the blame, if China is urging all parties to calm down while one party holds constant military exercises … and the other is constantly launching missiles?” 
 
 Japan’s J-Alert warning system advised people across a large area of northern Japan to seek shelter. Japan’s self-defence forces did not attempt to shoot down the missile and there were no reports of damage from falling debris. 
 
 
 
 The public broadcaster NHK said the missile had been launched from a site near the North Korean capital, Pyongyang and passed over a sparsely populated area of Hokkaido just after 6am local time (10pm Monday British summer time). It broke into three parts and landed in the sea. 
 
 Seoul’s joint chiefs of staff (JCS) said the missile travelled about 2,700km and reached a maximum height of 550km. 
 
 The JCS said it was analysing the launch with the US and that South Korea’s military had strengthened its monitoring and preparation in case of further actions from North Korea. 
 
 Abe said his government was trying to establish the details of the launch and was doing everything possible to ensure the safety of the Japanese people. 
 
 Tuesday’s launch may have been a show of defiance towards military drills involving US and South Korean troops as well as a smaller number of personnel from other countries. 
 
 The drills have coincided with a dramatic rise in tensions on the Korean peninsula after North Korea’s test launch of two ICBMs and its threat to target seas off the coast of the Guam. 
 
 Seoul and Washington say their drills are an opportunity for the allies to improve their defensive capabilities but Pyongyang routinely denounces them as a dress rehearsal for war against North Korea. 
 
 On Tuesday North Korea’s ambassador to the UN said the joint exercises were driving the Korean peninsula towards “an extreme level of explosion”. 
 
 “Now that the US has openly declared its hostile intention towards the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, by waging aggressive joint military exercises despite repeated warnings … my country has every reason to respond with tough counter-measures as an exercise of its right to self defence,” Han Tae Song told the UN conference on disarmament, which is taking place in Geneva. 
 
 At the UN conference, multiple envoys, including those from the US, European Union, Japan and Australia took the floor to blast North Korea. “My hope is that North Korea ends this provocative behaviour,” US ambassador Robert Wood said. 
 
 Facebook Twitter Pinterest US soldiers during the annual US South Korea Ulchi-Freedom Guardian military exercises in Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea. Photograph: Ahn Young-joon/AP 
 
 
 
 
 
 The latest launch came three days after the North fired what were assessed as three short-range ballistic missiles into the sea and a month after its second test flight of an ICBM that analysts say could theoretically reach the US mainland. 
 
 Tuesday’s missile landed nowhere near Guam, which is about 2,500km south of Tokyo, but it covered enough distance to suggest that North Korea could follow up on its threat to the US territory. 
 
 South Korea said it was launched from Sunan, the location of Pyongyang’s international airport, raising the possibility that a runway was used as the launchpad. 
 
 Several towns in Japan have held evacuation drills this year in anticipation of a North Korean attack and there has been a steep rise in sales of individual nuclear shelters. 
 
 
 
 After North Korea threatened to fire a volley of missiles towards Guam earlier this month, Japan deployed Patriot missile defence systems in areas along the missiles’ anticipated route. Japan also has an Aegis destroyer stationed in the Sea of Japan. 
 
 North Korea first fired a missile over Japanese territory in 1998, triggering widespread condemnation and attempts by Japan’s government to improve its missile defence systems. 
 
 Japan has in the past vowed to shoot down North Korean missiles or rockets that threaten to hit its territory. In 2009 a North Korean rocket passed over Japanese territory without incident, leading to an immediate denunciation by Japan. 
 
 At the time North Korea said it was launching a telecommunications satellite but Washington, Seoul and Tokyo believed Pyongyang was testing an ICBM. 
 
 Wang Zhen in Beijing and agencies contributed to this report ||||| SEOUL/TOKYO (Reuters) - South Korean and Japanese jets joined exercises with two supersonic U.S. B-1B bombers above and near the Korean peninsula on Thursday, two days after North Korea sharply raised tension by firing a missile over Japan. 
 
 The drills, involving four U.S. stealth F-35B jets as well as South Korean and Japanese fighter jets, came at the end of annual U.S.-South Korea military exercises focused mainly on computer simulations. 
 
 “North Korea’s actions are a threat to our allies, partners and homeland, and their destabilizing actions will be met accordingly,” said General Terrence J. O’Shaughnessy, Pacific Air Forces Commander, who made an unscheduled visit to Japan. 
 
 “This complex mission clearly demonstrates our solidarity with our allies and underscores the broadening cooperation to defend against this common regional threat.” 
 
 North Korea has been working to develop a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the United States and has recently threatened to land missiles near the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam. 
 
 On Monday, North Korea, which sees the exercises as preparations for invasion, raised the stakes in its stand-off with the United States and its allies by firing an intermediate-range missile over Japan. 
 
 On Thursday, its official news agency, KCNA, denounced the military drills in traditionally robust fashion, calling them “the rash act of those taken aback” by the missile test, which it described as “the first military operation in the Pacific.” 
 
 President Donald Trump, who has warned that the U.S. military is “locked and loaded” in case of North Korean provocation, reacted angrily to the latest missile test, declaring on Twitter that “talking is not the answer” to resolving the crisis over North Korea’s weapons programs. 
 
 U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis was quick on Wednesday to stress that a diplomatic solution remained possible, but on Thursday he told reporters he agreed with Trump that Washington “should not be talking right now to a nation that is firing missiles over the top of Japan, an ally.” 
 
 White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders reiterated at a regular briefing on Thursday that all options - diplomatic, economic and military - remained on the table. 
 
 Japanese Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera spoke to Mattis by telephone and agreed to keep putting pressure on North Korea in a “visible” form, Japan’s defense ministry said. Japanese Prime Shinzo Abe said he and visiting British Prime Minister Theresa May agreed to urge China, North Korea’s lone major ally, to do more to rein in North Korea. 
 
 May and Abe also discussed the possibility of adopting a new U.N. Security Council resolution on North Korea, a British government source said. 
 
 SANCTION OPTIONS 
 
 The 15-member U.N. Security Council on Tuesday condemned the firing of the missile over Japan as “outrageous” and demanded that North Korea halt its weapons programs. But the U.S.-drafted statement did not threaten new sanctions. 
 
 Two U.S. Air Force B-1B Lancer bombers fly from Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, for a mission, with an escort of a pair of Japan Self-Defense Forces F-15 fighter jets and U.S. Marines' F-35B fighter jets in the vicinity of Kyushu, Japan, in this photo released by Air Staff Office of the Defense Ministry of Japan August 31, 2017. Air Staff Office of the Defense Ministry of Japan/HANDOUT via REUTERS 
 
 Japan has been urging Washington to propose new Security Council sanctions, which diplomats said could target North Korean laborers working abroad, oil supplies and textile exports. 
 
 However, diplomats expect resistance from Russia and fellow veto-wielding power China, particularly given that new measures were only announced on Aug. 5 after North Korea tested its first two intercontinental ballistic missiles in July. 
 
 A U.S. ban on travel by Americans to North Korea comes into effect on Friday, a step announced after the death of a U.S. student shortly after his release from a 15-year prison sentence in the country, where three other Americans are still detained. 
 
 China repeated a call on Thursday for restraint by all parties. 
 
 Defence ministry spokesman Ren Guoqiang told a monthly briefing China would never allow war or chaos on the Korean peninsula, its doorstep, and military means were not an option. 
 
 “China strongly demands all sides to exercise restraint and remain calm and not do anything to worsen tensions,” Ren said, adding that Chinese forces were maintaining a normal state of alert along the North Korean border. 
 
 Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said the situation on the peninsula was serious. 
 
 “The current tense situation on the peninsula isn’t a screenplay or a video game,” she told reporters. “It’s real, and is an immense and serious issue that directly involves the safety of people from both the north and south of the peninsula, as well as peace and stability of the entire region.” 
 
 Slideshow (12 Images) 
 
 For an interactive on North Korea's missile capabilities, click: here 
 
 For a graphic on North Korean missile trajectories, ranges, click: here 
 
 For a graphic on Kim's new act of defiance, click: here
– While North Korea keeps up its taunting missile tests, Japan is making plans of its own, with North Korea seemingly in its sights. The Wall Street Journal reports Japan is set to purchase extended-range missiles that could hit the North's military bases. The country's Defense Ministry says it will ask for $19 million in next year's budget to scoop up a Norwegian-built Joint Strike Missile that can travel up to 300 miles, as well as extra funds to revamp its F-35 jet fighters to carry Lockheed Martin missiles, including the company's Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile. The latter can reach just over 600 miles—far enough to hit land targets in the North from jets near Japan. Japan's defense minister minimizes the news, saying Japan would keep its reliance on the US for any such strikes. This would mark Japan's first-ever purchase of long-range missiles, notes CNN, and the move is upsetting some who want to stick to the official pacifist stance the country has maintained since World War II. One person likely to be pleased is President Trump, who said during a November visit that Japan should buy "massive" amounts of military equipment from the US. Meanwhile, North Korea has reportedly expressed a willingness to have a sit-down with the US over the nuclear detente. The Guardian reports that Sergey Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister, informed Rex Tillerson of that news Thursday when the two met in Vienna. No response from Tillerson yet, but the US State Department's stance has been that the North needs to show it's serious about giving up its nukes before a true conversation can be had.