TOKYO, July 5: About a dozen passenger planes were flying in the area and at about the same time that North Korea’s missiles splashed down in the Sea of Japan, a press report said Wednesday.

The planes were flying from European countries to Japan about the same time that six missiles, test fired from North Korea, splashed down, Jiji Press news agency quoted the Japanese Defence Agency as saying.

The planes, operated by non-Japanese airlines, were approaching Japan on a regular trans-Eurasian route which flies over Vladivostok and the Japanese port of Niigata, Jiji said.

They were bound for Japanese airports in Narita outside Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka, it said.

Most Japan-bound planes from Europe pass over a point called IGROD in the Sea of Japan.

Five of the six missiles landed some 200-400kms northwest of the point, Jiji said.

The other missile, believed to be a long-range Taepodong-2, splashed down some 100kms north of the point. Details of the location of the seventh missile were unclear.—AFP