North Korea’s launch of a suspected long-range ballistic missile on Thursday prompted Japan to issue a shelter-in-place alert before later reporting that the missile had not flown over Japan.

Concern over the trajectory of the missile fired shortly before 8:00 a.m. led the government to issue the alert for residents in Miyagi, Yamagata and Niigata prefectures, urging them to take shelter inside a building or underground.

The Japanese media reported that the missile had flown over Japan, but Tokyo's defense ministry later said that it did not fly over Japanese territory.

The long-range missile preceded the firing of two suspected short-range ballistic missiles about an hour later. Analyses of the launches by South Korea and the U.S. are ongoing.

The launches on Thursday come a mere day after the North fired more than 20 ballistic missiles and 100 artillery shells, an apparent protest against the large-scale Vigilant Storm air drills between South Korea and the U.S. running from Monday to Friday.

[Photo : KBS News]