N Korea again fires missile over Japan

North Korea yesterday fired a missile over Japan and far out into the Pacific Ocean for the second time in under a month, again challenging the United States and other world powers to rein in Pyongyang's missile and nuclear programmes.

The latest missile test by North Korea, one of its furthest-reaching yet, has split world powers who united behind new UN sanctions just days ago.

The US said the burden of responding to the North should fall on China, its main ally, and Russia, which also has ties to the communist state.

But China suggested the US was shirking its own responsibility, while Russia condemned "aggressive" US rhetoric.

The missile fired over Japan had the range to hit the US territory of Guam. It reached an altitude of about 770km (478 miles), travelling 3,700km past Japan's northernmost island of Hokkaido before landing in the sea, South Korea's military said.

It is the furthest any North Korean ballistic missile has ever travelled overground, Joseph Dempsey of the International Institute for Strategic Studies said in a tweet.

Amid international condemnations of the test, the UN Security Council was to meet later in the day to discuss the launch at the request of the United States and Japan, diplomats said.

North Korea has launched dozens of missiles under leader Kim Jong-Un as it accelerates a weapons programme designed to give it the ability to target the United States with a powerful, nuclear-tipped missile.

Two tests in July were for long-range intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching at least parts of the US mainland. North Korea also staged its sixth and most powerful nuclear bomb test earlier this month.

Warning announcements about the most recent missile blared around 7:00am (2200 GMT Thursday) in parts of northern Japan, while many residents received alerts on their mobile phones or saw warnings on TV telling them to seek refuge.

US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis said the launch "put millions of Japanese into duck and cover", although people in northern Japan seemed calm and went about business as normal.

US officials repeated Washington's "ironclad" commitments to the defence of its allies. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called for "new measures" against North Korea and said the "continued provocations only deepen North Korea's diplomatic and economic isolation".

A poll by Gallup Analytics suggested a majority of Americans appeared ready to support military action against North Korea, at least as a last resort. Some 58 percent said they would favour taking military action if economic and diplomatic efforts failed to achieve US goals. Gallup said this was up from 47 percent in favour the last time the group asked this, in 2003.

Russia said the missile test was part of a series of unacceptable provocations and that the UN Security Council was united in believing such launches should not be taking place.

President Vladimir Putin discussed the launch in a phone call with French President Emanuel Macron and agreed on the need for a diplomatic solution, including through resuming direct talks on North Korea, the Kremlin said in a statement.

The Security Council was to meet at 3:00pm ET (1900 GMT), diplomats said, just days after its 15 members unanimously stepped up sanctions against North Korea over its Sept 3 nuclear test.

Those sanctions imposed a ban on North Korea's textile exports and capped its imports of crude oil.

Last month, North Korea fired an intermediate range missile from a similar area near the capital Pyongyang that also flew over Hokkaido into the ocean and said more would follow.

Pyongyang on Thursday threatened to sink Japan and reduce the United States to "ashes and darkness" for supporting the U.N. Security Council's latest resolution and sanctions.

"China and Russia must indicate their intolerance for these reckless missile launches by taking direct actions of their own," Tillerson said.

China's foreign ministry spokeswoman, Hua Chunying, denied that China held the key to easing tension on the peninsula and said that duty lay with the parties directly involved.

"Any attempt to wash their hands of the issue is irresponsible and unhelpful for its resolution," she said, reiterating China's position that sanctions are only effective if paired with talks.