TOKYO, September 15. /TASS/. North Korea’s missile fired on Friday is capable of reaching Guam, a tiny US territory in the Pacific home to US military facilities, Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera told reporters.

"It flew a distance that is more than enough to reach Guam," the minister said.

The Japanese defense chief said he also held a phone conversation with his US counterpart James Mattis to discuss the Korean Peninsula crisis. The sides confirmed the need to exert pressure on Pyongyang.

North Korea fired another ballistic missile on Friday that flew over northern Japan’s Hokkaido Island towards the Pacific Ocean and fell some 2,200 km to the east of Cape Erimo. This is the sixth time since 1998 when a North Korean missile or its fragments fly over Japan’s territory. According to South Korea’s military, the launch was carried out from Pyongyang’s area. The missile flew 3,700 km and reached the altitude of 770 km, Yonhap said.

In early August, the Korean Central News Agency said the country’s armed forces were working on a plan for launching four missiles towards Guam in order to demonstrate the capability of dealing a pre-emptive blow on US military facilities, including the air base Andersen, where strategic bombers B-52 are deployed.