The Japanese state broadcaster NHK apologized Wednesday after mistakenly sending a news alert on Tuesday stating that North Korea had launched a missile and Japanese citizens should seek refuge, only a few days after a similar incident in Hawaii.

NHK sent the message around 7 pm citing "J-Alert", a centralized satellite system used by the government to issue warnings to its citizens about emergencies such as missile launches or earthquakes, although the broadcaster corrected itself five minutes later.

The broadcaster apologized for issuing a false alert in a written statement which states, however, that there were no reports of problems caused by the mistake.

A NHK spokesperson explained that staff had mistakenly operated the equipment to deliver news alerts over the internet, although the reactions expressing concern and criticism soon hit social media.

The news comes just three days after people in Hawaii in the United States had received an alert on their mobile phones citing an incoming ballistic missile, an alarm that turned out to be false.

NHK's fast rectification of its error stands in contrast to the 40-minute delay by authorities in Hawaii in canceling the false warning, as is evident from the images posted by the inhabitants of the archipelago that show the alert and its subsequent correction.

Japan has conducted several citizen evacuation drills using its "J-Alert" system in the face of an eventual missile attack.

The next evacuation drill is set to be conducted in Tokyo on Jan. 22, in response to the repeated missile launches by North Korea, some of which flew over Japan's territory in 2017.