President Donald Trump's National Security Adviser, H. R. McMaster, said on Sunday the United States is exploring "a range of options" to respond to an increasingly provocative North Korea but that the administration would like "to take action short of armed conflict, so we can avoid the worst."

McMaster's comments came on a weekend during which North Korea staged a huge parade in Pyongyang to showcase its military prowess and later launched a ballistic missile that exploded within seconds.

Appearing on This Week on ABC News in the US, McMaster called the failed test part of "a pattern of provocative and destabilising and threatening behaviour on the part of the North Korean regime."

"The President has made clear that he will not accept the United States and its allies and partners in the region being under threat from this hostile regime with nuclear weapons," he said.