The US successfully launched an intercontinental ballistic missile from California early Wednesday to show the military is “ready” and “able” to deter attacks – just days after North Korea test-fired a rocket that could reach the American mainland.

An Air Force statement said the firing wasn’t in response to the reclusive regime’s mounting military provocations, but to show that the US “is safe, secure, effective and ready to be able to deter, detect and defend against attacks on the United States and its allies.”

The unarmed Minuteman 3 missile was launched at 2:10 a.m. from Vandenberg Air Force Base just south of Los Angeles and traveled about 4,200 miles to the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands.

North Korean President Kim Jong Un’s regime launched an ICBM on Friday that experts said could strike most of the continental US. It was the second firing of an ICBM missile in July.

Sen. Lindsey Graham said President Trump told him that the two countries could end up in a war if the rogue regime continues to test ICBMs.

“There is a military option to destroy North Korea’s (missile) program and North Korea itself,” the South Carolina Republican told NBC’s “Today” show on Tuesday. “If there’s going to be a war to stop them, it will be over there. If thousands die, they’re going to die over there, they’re not going to die here and (Trump) told me that to my face.”

But Secretary of State Rex Tillerson seems eager for a diplomatic resolution, telling North Korea “we are not your enemy.”

​He said ​the US ​does “not seek a regime change. We do not seek a collapse of the regime. We do not seek an accelerated reunification of the peninsula.”

​But Tillerson, speaking on Tuesday at the State Department, said the rogue regime is testing the patience of the US. ​

“We are trying to convey to the North Koreans, we are not your enemy, we are not your threat, but you are presenting an unacceptable threat to us, and we have to respond,” he said.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Tuesday said “all options are on the table,” but the administration would not “broadcast” ahead of time what actions it will take.

With Wires