Officials in South Korea said the missile may have flown further than any other tested by North Korea – sending a clear message to Washington just weeks after Kim Jong-un threatened to target the US Pacific territory of Guam with similar intermediate-range missiles.

It also demonstrated the regime’s willingness to raise the diplomatic stakes by sending a missile directly over Japanese territory. Pyongyang has tested more powerful intercontinental ballistic missiles this year, but Tuesday’s launch followed a much flatter trajectory than those tests.