The NHK channel sent the message out via its app, which read: “NHK news alert.
“North Korea likely to have launched missile.
“The government J alert: evacuate inside the building or underground.”
But it emerged the warning was a false alarm and the Japanese broadcaster was forced to issue an apology.
NHK said: “The news alert sent earlier about NK missile was a mistake.
“No government J was issued.”
The alert came just days after Japan installed a US-built missile defence system amid anxiety over North Korea’s nuclear proliferation.
At the beginning of the year US President Donald Trump mocked Kim Jong-un in a tweet, as he wrote: “I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger and more powerful one than his, and my button works!”
Pyongyang responded today by saying his remarks were the “spasm of a lunatic”.
The latest false alarm comes just days after people in Hawaii were mistakenly warned of an incoming “ballistic missile threat” that turned out to be a false alarm.
The blunder on Saturday was blamed on an employee who “pushed the wrong button”.
The emergency message read: “Ballistic missile threat inbound to Hawaii. Seek immediate shelter. This is not a drill.”
It was only confirmed as a false alarm 38 minutes later.
A former military official has warned that North Korea could ultimately deliver a successful nuclear strike on the United States, claiming the superpower’s defence systems only have a 50 per cent chance of stopping them.
Ex-Green Beret commander Michael Waltz warned that US defence capabilities are not fully functional.
He said: “The point I can’t emphasise enough is that our ground base missile defences – the ones that are in California and Alaska – that these shoot these things down from space is only about 50 per cent effective.”