A missile fired on Friday by North Korea had sufficient range to reach the United States mainland, and was capable of flying as far as 15,000 km, Japan’s defence minister, Yasukazu Hamada, said.

The projectile, in the class of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM), reached an altitude of 6,000 km, covering a range of 1,000 km on a lofted trajectory, Hirokazu Matsuno, the chief cabinet secretary, had said earlier.

It landed about 200 km west of Oshima-Oshima island in the northern prefecture of Hokkaido.