US President Donald Trump has said North Korea’s latest missile launch signals “contempt” for its neighbours and the UN.
He said the North would only increase its isolation and that “all options” were on the table.
The missile flew over northern Japan’s Hokkaido island before crashing into the northern Pacific Ocean.
Pyongyang says it is being provoked by US-South Korea military exercises which it says are a rehearsal for invasion.
Russia and China have also cited the drills as the source of the latest tensions.
The UN Security Council is due to hold an emergency meeting in response. Ahead of the meeting, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the missile launch undermined regional security and stability.
He called on Pyongyang to comply with its international obligations.
President Trump, in a statement released by the White House, said the world had “received North Korea’s latest message loud and clear”.
“This regime has signalled its contempt for its neighbours, for all members of the United Nations, and for minimum standards of acceptable international behaviour,” he said.
“Threatening and destabilising actions only increase the North Korean regime’s isolation in the region and among all nations of the world. All options are on the table.”
Earlier this month, President Trump warned Pyongyang would face “fire and fury” if it continued to threaten the US, while North Korea threatened to fire missiles towards the US Pacific territory of Guam.
However, North Korean UN ambassador Han Tae-Song said his country had the right to respond to the military exercises.
“Now that the US has openly declared its hostile intention towards DPR [North] Korea by raising joint aggressive military exercises despite repeated warnings… my country has every reason to respond with tough counter-measures,” he told a disarmament conference in Geneva.
He said the US would be responsible for any “catastrophic consequences”.
Pyongyang has conducted a flurry of missile tests recently but this is the first time it has fired what is thought to be a ballistic weapon over Japan.
On the two previous occasions its rockets crossed Japan – in 1998 and 2009 – North Korea said they were for satellite launch vehicles, and therefore not weapons.
