"As far as we know, there has been no firing of missiles by North Korea today," a spokesman of JCS told AFP.

An official of the Japan Defense Agency earlier said the Japanese government was investigating the report by Japan Broadcasting Corp (NHK) on its midday bulletin.

"There is information that North Korea fired a missile this morning," NHK said in its midday bulletin, adding that it appeared to be the same type of missile as Pyongyang test-fired on Monday and presented no threat to Japan.

North Korea on Monday test-fired a surface-to-ship missile as part of its annual military exercise, the JCS in South Korea said.

SPACE.WIRE