North Korea has fired a ballistic missile over Japan, prompting a warning for residents to take cover and a temporary suspension of train operations in northern Japan.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Japanese coast guard reported on the missile test, launched on Tuesday off North Korea’s east coast.

“Missile launch, missile launch. Please evacuate to a building or underground,” warnings sounded on Japanese national TV, as the government issued evacuation notices for residents in the prefectures of Hokkaido and Aomori.

The missile appeared to fly over and past Japanese territory, before falling into the Pacific ocean. Japan said it did not use defence measures to destroy the missile.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said “the firing, which followed a recent series of launches by North Korea, is a reckless act and I strongly condemn it”.

He said the government would continue to gather and analyse information. The PM will also convene a meeting of Japan’s national security council to discuss the situation.

Defence Minister Yasukazu Hamada said Japan wouldn’t rule out any options, including counterattack capabilities, as it looked to strengthen its defences in the face of repeated missile launches from North Korea.

South Korea also said it would boost its military and increase allied cooperation.

“North Korea’s series of actions, including its repeated ballistic missile launches, threatens the peace and security of Japan, the region, and the international community, and poses a serious challenge to the entire international community, including Japan,” Japan’s top government spokesperson Hirokazu Matsuno, said.

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TV Asahi, citing an unnamed government source, said North Korea appeared to have fired an intercontinental ballistic missile that fell into the sea some 3000 kilometres from Japan.

It was the first North Korean missile to fly over Japanese territory in five years. It also appeared to be North Korea’s longest-range launch since the regime tested an intercontinental ballistic missile back in May.

South Korea President Yoon Suk Yeol said North Korea had fired an intermediate-range missile with a range of 4000 kilometres – enough to put Guam within striking distance.

He called the test “reckless” and said it would bring a decisive response from his country’s military, its allies and the international community.

The latest launch was Pyongyang’s fifth in 10 days, amid military muscle-flexing by the US, South Korea, and Japan. Last week, the three countries conducted trilateral anti-submarine exercises that included a US aircraft carrier, which stopped in South Korea for the first time since 2017.

The flurry of missile testing has helped North Korea make more its weapons operational, develop new capabilities and send a message that development was a sovereign right, analysts said.

North Korea’s missile and nuclear weapons programs are banned by United Nations Security Council resolutions, which have imposed sanctions on the country.

The launch over Japan was “unfortunate” and “not a productive path forward”, Daniel Kritenbrink, the top US diplomat for East Asia, said at an online event hosted by the Institute for Corean-American Studies.

The North had completed preparations for a nuclear test, which it might look to carry out sometime between China’s Communist Party Congress this month and US mid-term elections in November, South Korean MPs said last week.

-with AAP