U.S. President Donald Trump warned North Korea Tuesday that "all options are on the table" in response to its latest missile launch over Japan.

In a statement, Trump slammed the communist regime, saying the launch earlier Tuesday signaled its "contempt for its neighbors, for all members of the United Nations, and for minimum standards of acceptable international behavior."

He also warned that "threatening and destabilizing actions" only deepen the North Korean regime's isolation in the world.

"All options are on the table," he said in the White House statement, marking a departure from his fuming tweets at Pyongyang.

The missile was fired from Pyongyang and flew eastward over Japan before dropping into the North Pacific Ocean, South Korea's military said. It flew more than 2,700 kilometers at a maximum altitude of around 550 km.

The Pentagon tentatively concluded the missile was of intermediate range, or between 2,700 and 5,600 km.

"Initial assessment indicates the launch of an intermediate range ballistic missile (IRBM)," it said in a statement, adding there was no threat to North America or Guam.

Trump had earlier warned that the U.S. military is "locked and loaded" to respond to North Korean provocations. He also threatened to unleash "fire and fury" on Pyongyang.

North Korea, for its part, threatened to fire four IRBMs toward the U.S. territory of Guam, but held off on the plan two weeks ago.

N. Korea leader hints at more missile launches 2017-08-30 09:52  |  North Korea
The latest provocation came as South Korean and U.S. troops have been conducting annual exercises. North Korea has long protested they are rehearsals for an invasion.

The North also test-fired three short-range ballistic missiles on Saturday.

"Like the three short-range missiles fired last week, this is a 'tit-for-tat' response" to the exercises, Robert Manning, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, said in an email.

Still, there are currently "no plans to modify UFG," Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Chris Logan said in response to a query from Yonhap. UFG stands for the Ulchi Freedom Guardian exercise, which is to run through Thursday.

The White House said Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe spoke by phone.

"The two leaders agreed that North Korea poses a grave and growing direct threat to the United States, Japan, and the Republic of Korea, as well as to countries around the world," it said in a separate statement.

"President Trump and Prime Minister Abe committed to increasing pressure on North Korea and doing their utmost to convince the international community to do the same."

The United Nations Security Council was set to convene later Tuesday to discuss the launch.

South Korea, the U.S. and Japan jointly requested the emergency meeting.

Just weeks ago, the Security Council unanimously adopted tough new sanctions against Pyongyang for its two intercontinental ballistic missile tests in July.

Those missiles theoretically have the range to hit the continental U.S. (Yonhap)