North Korea escalates tensions with fresh ballistic missile tests

Launch comes days after Pyongyang fired two strategic' missiles in an apparent protest over Washington-Seoul military drills

• North and South Korean tensions explained in 30 seconds

North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles Tuesday, Seoul said, Pyongyang's second launch in three days and the first since South Korea and the United States began their largest joint military drills in five years.

Washington and Seoul have ramped up defence cooperation in the face of growing military and nuclear threats from the North, which has conducted a series of increasingly provocative banned weapons tests in recent months.