Japan has lodged a protest with North Korea after one of its fishing boats collided with a Japanese patrol vessel in the country's exclusive economic zone, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Tuesday.

"We have protested to North Korea" via the embassy in Beijing, Abe said at a Diet session, adding Japan will take "resolute" action to prevent illegal fishing by foreign ships in its EEZ.

The protest was made Monday after the fishing boat defied repeated orders from the Fisheries Agency's vessel to leave the EEZ, a Foreign Ministry official said.