TOKYO (Reuters) - North Korea fired a ballistic missile over Japan on Friday morning, Japan’s government said, strongly protesting against what it called Pyongyang’s latest intolerable provocation.

The missile was launched at 6:57 a.m. Japan time (2157 GMT), flew over Hokkaido and splashed down at 7:16 a.m. (2216 GMT) some 2,000 kilometres east of the northern island’s Cape Erimo, said Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga.

Japan protests the latest launch in the strongest terms and will take appropriate and timely action at the United Nations and elsewhere, staying in close contact with the United States and South Korea, Suga told reporters.

(In paragraph two, corrects time that missile splashed down.)