Thursday's launch was the first full ICBM test by nuclear-armed North Korea since 2017.Â
Flight data indicated the missile flew higher and longer than any of the nation's previous tests before crashing into the sea west of Japan.
Leader Kim Jong-un directly guided the test, news agency KCNA reported.
"The emergence of the new strategic weapon of the DPRK would make the whole world clearly aware of the power of our strategic armed forces once again," Kim said, according to KCNA, using the initials of North Korea's official name.
The launch drew condemnation from the leaders of the United States, Japan, and South Korea.
"This launch is a brazen violation of multiple UN Security Council resolutions and needlessly raises tensions and risks destabilising the security situation in the region," White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement condemning the launch.
"The door has not closed on diplomacy, but Pyongyang must immediately cease its destabilising actions."
South Korea's outgoing President Moon Jae-in, who made engaging North Korea a major goal of his administration, condemned the launch as "a breach of the moratorium on ICBM launches that Chairman Kim Jong-un himself promised to the international community".
It was also a serious threat to the Korean peninsula, the region and the international community, and a clear violation of UN Security Council resolutions, added Moon.
The latest missile launch was an "unacceptable act of violence", Japanese Prime Minster Fumio Kishida said.
Photos released by state media showed a massive missile, painted black with a white nosecone, rising on a column of flame from a launch vehicle.