WASHINGTON, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- North Korea on Friday fired a ballistic missile that flew over Japanese airspace before crashing into the Pacific Ocean, South Korean and U.S. military officials said.

The ballistic missile was launched at 6:57 a.m. Friday Seoul time (5:57 p.m. Thursday ET) from the Sunan area of Pyongyang. It flew in an eastern direction around 2,300 miles and passed over Japanese airspace, a South Korean military official said.

The launch comes weeks after North Korea in late August fired a missile that traveled over Japanese airspace.

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said in a televised address that the single missile launched Friday flew over Hokkaido. There are no reports of any objects falling in Japanese territory or any other damage, Suga said.

"We as a nation simply cannot accept these repeated provocative acts [by] North Korea and we have lodged our firm protest and while communicating the strong anger from the Japanese public. We expressed our condemnation using the strongest of terms," Suga said. He said the missile landed around 1,242 miles east of Cape Erimo.

U.S. Pacific Command also confirmed the launch and said it believes the missile launched Friday was an intermediate-range ballistic missile.