US President Donald Trump said North Korea "disrespected'' China with its most recent ballistic missile test.
South Korea's military said in a statement Friday afternoon that North Korea had fired the missile from an area near the capital of Pyongyang on Saturday, but provided no other details.
U.S. and South Korean officials said the launch apparently failed.
Trump did not answer reporters' questions about the missile launch upon returning to the White House from a daytrip to Atlanta.
But he commented on Twitter, saying, "North Korea disrespected the wishes of China & its highly respected President when it launched, though unsuccessfully, a missile today. Bad!''
France's U.N. ambassador said the U.N. Security Council is "mobilized'' and unanimous on the need to denuclearize North Korea.
Francois Delattre said at the United Nations after the launch that while there were "nuances'' on policy to be worked out among council members, there is unanimity on the need for North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons.
North Korea fired the missile hours after the Security Council held a ministerial meeting on Pyongyang's escalating weapons program.
North Korean officials boycotted the meeting, which was chaired by U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.
Delattre added the council must be "very firm'' implementing sanctions, adopting new ones if necessary and denouncing North Korea's human rights record.
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missile flew for several minutes and reached a maximum height of 71 kilometres (44 miles) before it apparently failed.
The joint chiefs said in a statement on Saturday that the missile was fired 49 degrees northeast from an area near Pukchang, just north of the capital Pyongyang.
It didn't immediately provide an estimate on how far the missile flew.