Time is running out to avoid a war with North Korea, the White House national security has warned, after it emerged that the US is scoping out sites for missile interception batteries following the latest ballistic missile tests from Pyongyang.

“We’re in a race to be able to solve this problem,” H.R McMaster told Fox News during a weekend defence forum.

“There are ways to address this problem short of armed conflict, but it is a race because he’s getting closer and closer and there’s not much time left,” he said, adding that dictator Kim Jong-un’s nuclear ambitions were the “greatest immediate threat” to the US and the world.

Despite the US warnings, Pyongyang blasted the US and South Korea as self-destructive “warmongers” ahead of their largest-ever joint air exercise, which begins on Monday.

The five-day ‘Vigilant Ace’ drill will involve 12,000 military personnel and 230 aircraft, including F-22 Raptors and F-35 stealth fighters that will train close to the border with the North. Exercises will focus on enemy infiltration and precision airstrikes.

Mr McMaster's comments come just days after North Korea fired its highest-ever intercontinental ballistic missile test, capable of flying 8,080 miles and reaching 1,000 miles higher than during its first ICBM launch in July.