The United States was considering "military response options" on Friday night after North Korea carried out its second test of an intercontinental ballistic missile in a month, with Pyongyang claiming the whole of the US was within range.

The Pentagon confirmed that the missile, which flew for 45 minutes, travelled an estimated 600 miles and landed west of Japan's Hokkaido island, was an ICBM. It flew for six minutes longer than the previous one, on July 4.

"The test-fire reconfirmed the reliability of the ICBM system, demonstrated the capability of making a surprise launch of the ICBM in any region and place any time, and clearly proved that the whole U.S. mainland is in the firing range of the DPRK (North Korea) ," KCNA, Pyongyang's official news agency, said.

Washington, which has branded North Korea the "most urgent and dangerous threat to peace," condemned the launch as reckless.