North Korea has said its latest missile test shows its new intercontinental ballistic missile is capable of "striking all of the US continent" and demonstrated that it has become a nuclear state.
The launch prompted US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to warn that Pyongyang could soon threaten "everywhere in the world."
The United Nations Security Council is to meet today to discuss the latest missile launch.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has strongly condemned North Korea's action and urged Pyongyang to "desist taking any further destabilising steps."
North Korea fired the missile a week after US President Donald Trump put North Korea back on a US list of countries that Washington says support terrorism.
The designation allows the US to impose more sanctions, although some experts said it risked inflaming tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
Mr Trump said of North Korea's latest test missile: "It is a situation that we will handle."
'We will take care of it' – Donald Trump after the latest North Korean ballistic missile test https://t.co/rrWui5NawR pic.twitter.com/UenDnTU0Se
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) November 28, 2017
He said the launch did not change his administration's approach to North Korea, which has included new sanctions to hurt trade between China and North Korea.
The US sees China as important to deterring North Korea from its ambition to develop a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the US.
Pentagon spokesman Col Robert Manning said the Pentagon's initial assessment was that a missile was launched from Sain Ni in North Korea and travelled about 1,000km before splashing down in the Sea of Japan.
The missile did not pose a threat to the US or its territories or allies, the Pentagon said.
Japan's government estimated that the missile flew for about 50 minutes and landed in the sea in Japan's exclusive economic zone.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Japan was requesting an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council.
"We can never accept this violence and have strongly protested to North Korea," Mr Abe told reporters.
Both Mr Trump and Mr Abe agreed to boost their response to North Korea's missile programme and urged China to do more, a Japanese government spokesman said.
In a phone call the leaders "agreed to strengthen our deterrence capability against the North Korean threat," Yasutoshi Nishimura, deputy chief cabinet secretary, told reporters.
Both leaders also "agreed that China needs to play an increased role" in countering North Korea, Mr Nishimura said.
The UN Security Council said it would hold an emergency meeting tomorrow.
The South Korean military said the missile had an altitude of around 4,500km and flew 960km.
It also said that minutes after North Korea fired the missile, it conducted a missile-firing test in response.
An EU spokeswoman said the missile launch "is a further violation" of its international obligations.
