Donald Trump has vowed to "take care of it" after North Korea claimed to have successfully tested a new intercontinental ballistic missile that it said was capable of striking any target in the United States.

The US President was briefed while the missile was in the air, the White House said, and later declared: “It is a situation that we will handle."

The announcement of the new "Hwasong-15" missile, made in a special broadcast at noon local time on Wednesday, came hours after a long-range missile was fired into waters off Japan in what was believed to be its longest-range test yet.

Kim Jong-un’s rogue regime launched the missile, its first for more than two months, in the middle of the night and it flew for around 590 miles, reaching an altitude of 2,781 miles - more than 10 times the height of the international space station - and splashing down 53 minutes later in the Sea of Japan.

The missile ended up within Japan’s exclusive economic zone, which extends 200 nautical miles from its coast. The dictator later declared that his country had achieved full nuclear statehood.