A Japanese broadcaster has issued a false North Korea ballistic missile alarm just days after a phone alert warning of a possible strike caused panic across Hawaii.

The NHK network sent out the warning urging people to take shelter on its internet and mobile news sites as well as on Twitter today but apologised and corrected the error within minutes.

It was not immediately clear what caused the false alarm which comes amid heightened tensions between Tokyo and Pyongyang.

Last year, Kim Jong-un's regime fired a test missile over the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, where thousands were awoken by air-raid sirens.

Today's false television alert comes just three days after a blunder caused more than a million people in Hawaii to fear that they were about to be struck by a nuclear missile.

A Japanese broadcaster has issued a false North Korea ballistic missile alarm just days after a phone alert warning of a possible strike caused panic across Hawaii. Pictured: A Japanese defence system on the outskirts of Tokyo

NHK deleted its tweet after several minutes, issued a correction and apologised several times on air. It said a mistake in handling the alert system had caused the error.

Confirming today's false alarm, NHK wrote: 'Around 6.55pm earlier we reported on the NHK's news site and NHK's news disaster prevention application "Pattern of North Korean missile launch" but this was incorrectly issued. J alert has not appeared. I must sincerely apologise.'

Residents and tourists alike were left terrified after the mistaken alert was blasted out to cellphones across Hawaii on Saturday with a warning to seek immediate shelter and the ominous statement 'This is not a drill.'

The erroneous warning was sent during a shift change at the state's Emergency Management Agency when someone doing a routine test hit the live alert button, state officials said.

They tried to assure residents there would be no repeat false alarms. The agency changed protocols to require that two people send an alert and made it easier to cancel a false alarm - a process that took nearly 40 minutes.

The error sparked a doomsday panic across the islands known as a laid-back paradise.

An alert in Hawaii was sent to mobile phones and broadcast on television and radio by the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency (HEMA) shortly after 8am on Saturday

Police dispatchers in Hawaii found out in minutes than an alert warning of an incoming ballistic missile was a false alarm but struggled to inform panicked islanders that there was no threat

Parents clutched their children, huddled in bathtubs and said prayers. Students bolted across the University of Hawaii campus to take cover in buildings.

Drivers abandoned cars on a highway and took shelter in a tunnel. Others resigned themselves to a fate they could not control and simply waited for the attack.

The 911 system for the island of Oahu was overwhelmed with more than 5,000 calls. There were no major emergencies during the false alarm, Mayor Kirk Caldwell said.

An investigation into what went wrong is underway at the Federal Communications Commission, which sets rules for wireless emergency alerts sent by local, state or federal officials to warn of the threat of hurricanes, wildfires, flash flooding and to announce searches for missing children.