“All options are on the table” to deal with North Korea, U.S President Donald Trump said on Tuesday after it launched a missile over Japan, escalating the tension in the region. America’s Asian allies South Korea and Japan are increasingly under threat from North Korea which is racing fast to acquire the capability to strike mainland America too.

‘Message loud and clear’

“The world has received North Korea’s latest message loud and clear: this regime has signalled its contempt for its neighbours, for all members of the United Nations, and for minimum standards of acceptable international behaviour,” Mr. Trump said in a statement. “Threatening and destabilising actions only increase the North Korean regime’s isolation in the region and among all nations of the world. All options are on the table,” he said.

“We’ll see, we’ll see,” Mr. Trump said, when reporters asked him what he was going to do about North Korea, while leaving the White House for flood-affected Texas on Tuesday morning.

The President also spoke to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on the situation. The White House said they committed to increasing pressure on North Korea.

Four missile tests over four days by North Korea prove that American optimism about the situation expressed by Mr. Trump and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson last week was misplaced and premature. “…Kim Jong Un, I respect the fact that I believe he is starting to respect us. I respect that fact very much. And maybe, probably not, but maybe something positive can come about,” Mr. Trump had said last week.

Mr. Tillerson had said last Tuesday the brief hiatus in missile tests by Pyongyang was the signal America was looking for. He said it was “worth noting, we have had no missile launches or provocative acts” since the UN Security Council resolution sanctioning Pyongyang on August 5.

“I am pleased to see that the regime in Pyongyang has demonstrated restraint. We hope this is the signal we have been looking for… And perhaps we are seeing a pathway in the near future to having some dialogue.”

However, the Pentagon also said that diplomacy was still Washington's preferred option with North Korea.

“While all options are on the table, diplomacy is still in the lead,” Pentagon spokesman Colonel Robert Manning told Reuters.

The U.S. is technically still at war with the North because their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. Relations worsened last year when North Korea staged two nuclear bomb tests.