NAGASAKI, Japan (Reuters) — Japan held a drill on Wednesday (November 22) in an imagined situation in which a warhead fired from an unspecified country strikes Nagasaki.
The drill involved Japan’s self defense force personnel, assisted by local firefighters, paramedics, and police officers, creating a perimeter around the fake warhead by first checking for radioactivity with geiger counters.
They then demonstrated the decontamination of the area by spraying water. They also assisted in the evacuation of people who took shelter inside a shed near the fake warhead.
The drill comes at a time when tensions between the isolated nation and the region remains high.
North Korea has launched more than 10 missiles this year, with many splashing into the Sea of japan, some inside Japan’s exclusive economic zone, which extends up to 200 miles from its shores.
Tokyo has repeatedly condemned the test launches, which are in violation of U.N. resolutions.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government earlier this year instructed municipalities to hold evacuation drills, heightening a sense of urgency among the public.