It comes a day after the North fired its own ballistic missile into the Sea of Japan - which analysts dubbed a warning ahead of a China-US summit, at which Pyongyang's accelerating atomic weapons programme is set to top the agenda.
The hardened USA stance followed recent North Korean missile launches that Pyongyang described as practice for an attack on United States bases in Japan.
In a terse statement, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said: "The United States has spoken enough about North Korea".
The cruise missile is capable of reaching the northernmost city of Sinuiju in North Korea, when fired from the South's southernmost Jeju Island, according to sources.
Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that the missile fired from the North's eastern coastal town of Sinpo on Wednesday morning flew about 37 miles.
The launch drew swift condemnation from Japan, with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe saying further provocative action was possible.
US officials said the missile launched on Wednesday appeared to be a liquid-fuelled, extended-range Scud missile that only travelled a fraction of its range before spinning out of control.
The Massachusetts Democrat's plan, outlined in a letter that was sent to Trump on the eve of his first meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, suggests that the U.S. should agree to direct talks with North Korea in exchange for China's commitment to drastically escalate sanctions against Pyongyang if they fail to negotiate in good faith. Initial assessments indicate it was a KN-15 medium-range ballistic missile, the statement said.
Strikes conducted on site of Syria chemical attack
Johnson condemned Russia's continued defense of Assad "even after the chemical weapons attack on innocent civilians". They have also apparently redirected a Black Sea Frigate armed with cruise missiles to the Syrian port of Tartus.
Those details raised questions with some experts - if the tracking time and distance are accurate, North Korea would have fired "the world's slowest missile", according to Melissa Hanham of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program.
"This test compared to the last one (in February) did not go as far or as high", she said.
The projectile could play a key role in the South Korean plan known as Korea Massive Punishment and Retaliation, or KMPR, which could target the North Korean leadership in the event of a nuclear attack.
The KN-15 missile reportedly refers to what North Korea calls the solid-fuel "Pukguksong-2". Dave Benham, spokesman for US Pacific Command.
"The market is only starting to factor in recent developments regarding North Korea, and it now wants to figure out the geopolitical implications of the U.S". "It should be concerning everyone because it will be improving the chance to use their offensive capabilities better".
"The clock has now run out and all options are on the table", an official told CNN on Tuesday, pointing to the failure of successive administrations' efforts to negotiate an end to North Korea's nuclear program.
"It very well may be a bluff that is meant to convince us that a unilateral preemptive strike is impractical, unrealistic and unwise", Schuster said.
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