North Korea lobbed a ballistic missile over Japan on Tuesday in a strategic provocation sharply escalating tensions in Northeast Asia, Yonhap news agency reported.

The missile was fired eastward from the vicinity of Sunan in Pyongyang at around 5:57 a.m., according to South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS).

"It passed through the sky over Japan" and fell into the North Pacific Ocean, the JCS said.