TOKYO/SEOUL: In response to North Korea's missile launch on Thursday, regions in central and northern Japan were advised to take shelter after a possible failed intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) was launched.

Despite an initial government warning that a missile had overflown Japan, Tokyo later said that was incorrect.

Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada said the government had been unable to track the missile's passage over the Sea of ​​Japan, prompting a reversal of the announcement that the missile had flown over Japan.

A missile that struck South Korea and Japan was suspected to be a North Korean intercontinental ballistic missile, which can carry a nuclear warhead to the other side of the globe.

South Korean officials believe the ICBM failed in flight, Yonhap news agency reported, without elaborating. Spokespeople for the South Korean and Japanese ministries of defence declined to confirm the possible failure.

Yoji Koda, a retired vice admiral and former Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force fleet commander, said the loss of radar tracking on the projectile points to a failed launch.

Although the warhead came down in the sea between the Korean peninsula and Japan, debris, which would have been travelling at high speed, may still have passed over Japan, Koda added.

South Korean and US officials say North Korea has failed several ICBM tests this year.

The United States condemned North Korea's ICBM launch, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement. "This launch is a clear violation of multiple United Nations Security Council resolutions," he said.

It also demonstrates the threat from North Korea's unlawful weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs, Price added.

The launches came after Pyongyang called on the US and South Korea to end large-scale military exercises, saying "military arrogance and provocation can no longer be tolerated".

The recent missile launches and other military actions are said to be in protest of military exercises.

The allies have been conducting one of the largest air exercises ever, with hundreds of South Korean and U.S. warplanes, including F-35 fighters, staging around-the-clock simulated missions.

"A strong combined defence posture of the ROK-U.S. alliance is necessary under the current security crisis escalating due to North Korean provocations," the statement said, using the initials of South Korea's official name.

North Korea also launched two short-range ballistic missiles on Thursday.

The launches came after North Korea fired at least 23 missiles on Wednesday, the most in a single day, including one that landed off South Korea's coast for the first time.

South Korea issued rare air raid warnings and launched its own missiles in response after Wednesday's barrage.

After the first launch on Thursday, residents of Miyagi, Yamagata and Niigata prefectures in Japan were warned to seek shelter indoors, according to the J-Alert Emergency Broadcasting System.

"We detected a launch that showed the potential to fly over Japan and therefore triggered the J Alert, but after checking the flight we confirmed that it had not passed over Japan," Hamada told reporters.

The first missile flew to an altitude of about 2,000 kilometres and a range of 750 kilometres, he said. Such a flight pattern is called a "lofted trajectory", in which a missile is fired high into space to avoid flying over neighbouring countries.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said the long-range missile was launched from near the North Korean capital, Pyongyang.

About an hour after the first launch, South Korea's military and the Japanese coast guard reported a second and third launch from North Korea.

South Korea said both of those were short-range missiles fired from Kaechon, north of Pyongyang.

South Korean Vice Foreign Minister Cho Hyun-dong and U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman strongly condemned North Korea's series of missile launches as "deplorable and immoral" during a phone call on Thursday, Seoul's foreign ministry said.

U.S. President Joe Biden and his national security team were "assessing the situation," National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said in a statement, which added that the United States would take "all necessary measures" to ensure security.

Japan and South Korea have a history of mischaracterizing North Korean missile events, said Ankit Panda of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

"Neither country has the highly reliable and desirable space-based infrared sensors available to the United States that allow for prompt detection of missile stages as they ignite," he said.

On Oct. 4, North Korea launched a ballistic missile over Japan for the first time in five years, prompted a warning for residents there to take cover. It was the farthest North Korea had ever fired a missile.