On Friday morning, a North Korea ballistic missile flew over the Japanese island of Hokkaido and into the Pacific Ocean.
This came a day after Pyongyang said that Japan “should be sunken into the sea”.
The missile flew 2,300 miles in around 17 minutes, which means that the US territory of Guam, which lies 2,100 miles from North Korea is now in reach.
The launch of the missile yesterday will also be seen as a challenge to Donald Trump, who warned Kim Jong-un’s state last month that it would face “fire and fury” if it threatened the US.
Garren Mulloy, a defence expert and associate professor of international relations at Japan’s Daito Bunka University, told The Daily Telegraph: “From previous launches and the altitude and ranges of those missiles, it has been assumed that Guam is within range of the North’s missiles, but this latest test is proof.”
Pyongyang has called Friday’s missile test launch over Japan a “shining victory in the standoff with the United States” claiming that the US lives in “mortal fear” of North Korea.
Data from the flight reveals that the missile travelled higher and further than the one involved in the August flyover of Japan, which suggests the regime is making advances in its programme.
Co-director of the global security programme at the Union of Concerned Scientists, David Wright, said: “North Korea demonstrated that it could reach Guam with this missile.”
The island territory of Guam is an important strategic hub for US power in the Pacific.
It is home to Anderson Air Force Base and Naval Base Guam, which are bases containing 6,000 troops but also long-range bombers, ships and submarines.
Mr Wright said: “Even assuming the missile carried a 150 kiloton warhead, which may be the yield of North Korea’s recent nuclear test, a missile of this inaccuracy would still have well under a 10 per cent chance of destroying the air base.”
The US has warned that it could ever to military options if new sanctions do not curb the North Korean missile and nuclear tests.
In a unanimous statement late on Friday, the UN Security Council said it “strongly condemned” the missile launch, but did not threaten further sanctions on Pyongyang.
Rex Tillerson, the US secretary of state, said North Korea was “endangering the entire world” and urged China and Russia to do more to rein in North Korea.
He said: “China and Russia must indicate their intolerance for these reckless missile launches by taking direct actions of their own.”