Japan has strongly protested the latest ballistic missile attack launched by North Korea over Japan’s northern Hokkaido far out into the Pacific Ocean on Friday calling it an intolerable provocation.

North Korea fired the ballistic missile, with a range of 3,700 Kms over Japan on Friday morning.

The missile was launched at 6:57 a.m. Japan time (2157 GMT). It flew over Hokkaido and splashed down at 7:16 a.m. (2216 GMT) some 2,000 kilometres east of the northern island’s Cape Erimo, said Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga.

Japan protested the latest launch in the strongest terms and will take appropriate and timely action at the United Nations and elsewhere, staying in close contact with the United States and South Korea, Suga told reporters.

Before the missile launch, a North Korean state agency threatened to use nuclear weapons to “sink” Japan and reduce the United States to “ashes and darkness” for supporting a U.N. Security Council resolution and sanctions over its latest nuclear test.