North Korea Fires Powerful Missile, Using Old Playbook in a New World The last time Pyongyang launched a weapon over Japan was in 2017, when Donald J. Trump was president and Kim Jong-un seemed intent on escalating conflict with Washington.“It makes me feel so scared.” Over the course of the year, North Korea’s missile provocations have become so frequent — 23 weapons tests since January, including four last week — that much of the public had ceased to pay attention.The Longest Distance Traveled by a North Korean Missile RUSSIA The missile was launched from Mupyong-ri, North Korea.When North Korea tested a similar missile in 2017, President Donald J. Trump sent B-1B supersonic bombers and other warplanes close to North Korea, and called Mr. Kim a “Rocket Man” on “a suicide mission.” Mr. Kim responded with a test launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile that he said was capable of delivering a nuclear warhead to the continental United States.We have to be calm,” said Noboru Yamaguchi, a professor of international relations at the International University of Japan in Niigata and a retired lieutenant general in Japan’s army, known as the Ground Self-Defense Force."