US says latest North Korea missile launch is 'threat to the world'
Video report by ITV News Correspondent Emma Murphy
America has called for an emergency UN Security Council meeting over North Korea's latest missile launch.
It comes after the country fired its first intercontinental ballistic missile - which could be potentially powerful enough to reach Alaska.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called the missile a "new threat to the world".
Although, experts say the missiles cannot fire accurately at targets.
Just a day before the test, US President Donald Trump criticised North Korean leader Kim Jong-un saying: "Does this guy have anything better to do with his life?"
Taking to Twitter, he added: "Hard to believed that South Korea...and Japan will put up with this any longer."
And he urged North Korea's biggest ally, China, to "put a heavy move on North Korea and end this nonsense once and for all!"
He had previously declared that North Korea testing such a missile "won't happen".
The UN Security Council meeting is expected to take place on Wednesday July 5.
Russia and China, which border North Korea, have also stepped in demanding a halt to missile testing in North Korea.
The two nations further urged the US and South Korea to simultaneously suspend their large-scale military exercises as part of a proposed plan to defuse tensions.
The calls came following talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping in the wake of North Korea's claim of successfully testing an ICBM capable of hitting anywhere in the world.
But US and South Korean troops fired missiles into the waters off South Korea in a show of force after the ICBM test, the US military said.
The missile launch on Tuesday was part of a series of test-firings in recent months as the North works to build a nuclear-tipped missile that could reach the United States.
The country's Academy of Defence Science said the test marked the "final step" in creating a "confident and powerful nuclear state that can strike anywhere on Earth".
North Korean state television claimed the Hwasong-14 missile - launched under the supervision of Kim Jong-un - reached an altitude of 1,741 miles (2,802km) and hit its target precisely after flying for 39 minutes.
Japan's government said the missile was believed to have landed in its exclusive economic zone in the Sea of Japan, having travelled a distance of around 580 miles (930km), but no damage to ships or aircraft in the area has been reported.
Pyongyang says it needs nuclear weapons and powerful missiles to cope with what it calls rising US military threats.
Britain's Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson condemned the launch and suggested it amounted to a breach of UN Security Council resolutions.
In a statement, he said: "This is yet another reminder of the grave danger that North Korea poses to her neighbours, particularly Japan and South Korea, who are our friends and allies.
"Regardless of the variety of missile launched, any test of this kind breaks UN Security Council resolutions once again.
"I expect this will be on the agenda at the upcoming G20 summit and addressed at the UN over the coming days."
Mr Johnson added it was now China's turn to put real pressure on North Korea as "it has it in its hands to put on a lot more pressure" due to its economic ties and influence with the nation.