Amid heightened tensions over a possible provocation by North Korea, Japan's public broadcaster NHK mistakenly issued a report that the regime had launched a missile. 

NHK issued the alert at 12:22 a.m. Friday, warning that a North Korean missile appeared to have fallen into the sea two-thousand kilometers east of Hokkaido.

The broadcaster retracted it minutes later and apologized, saying that a practice text was posted on its website by accident.

The false alert reportedly used language similar to what was used after the September 2017 launch of an intermediate-range missile, which flew over Japan in a test demonstrating North Korea’s ability to hit U.S. forces in Guam.

Meanwhile, China's state-run Xinhua News said that the Pentagon confirmed after NHK's false alarm that no missile had been launched from North Korea. 

A Pentagon official reportedly told Xinhua that the Pentagon is not tracking a launch of any type.

[Photo : YONHAP News]