Feb. 14 (UPI) — The Japanese government has decided to add guidelines on missile evacuation for schools in a move that signals ongoing wariness about North Korea despite an inter-Korea detente on the peninsula.
The decision comes from Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, and includes evacuation tips for students and teachers, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported Wednesday.
The ministry has revised the manual to include instructions on crisis management and ways to coordinate evacuations with local government authorities, according to the report.
The guidelines introduce missile flyovers as a “new form of crisis” that is being added to a manual primarily preoccupied with violent attacks on school populations.
Japan’s increasingly nationwide J-alert warning system was mentioned in the guidelines, and the instructions show students and teachers are expected to stay in evacuation positions until a potential missile’s dropping point is confirmed.
After the manual is revised, it will be distributed to schools across the country by the end of March, South Korean news service News 1 reported.
Japanese television network NHK reported in November 2017 that about 85 percent of 1,648 education boards requested preparations for North Korea missiles be included in the manuals.
The move to warn schools of provocations come less than a month after Japan conducted a missile evacuation drill in the heart of Tokyo.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had said in January provocations were “becoming worse.”
North Korea is likely to stay away from weapons tests, however.
Kim Jong Un has invited South Korean President Moon Jae-in to Pyongyang in an unprecedented gesture of reconciliation, according to South Korean press reports.
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