Japan's defense ministry reportedly said that North Korea launched a suspected ballistic missile toward the East Sea on Sunday morning.

According to the Kyodo News, Japan's Vice Defense Minister Toshiro Ino said on Sunday that the missile traveled about 800 kilometers with a maximum altitude of 50 kilometers, adding it seemed to have landed in waters outside Japan's Exclusive Economic Zone.

The vice minister reportedly said that the Tokyo government lodged a strong protest to North Korea through the North's embassy in Beijing.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said that North Korea launched a short-range ballistic missile from the Tongchang-ri area in North Pyongan Province on the North's west coast at 11:05 a.m. toward the East Sea.

The latest missile provocation, the seventh ballistic missile launch this year, comes three days after the North fired an intercontinental ballistic missile on Thursday, when the leaders of South Korea and Japan held summit talks in Tokyo.