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North Korea has vowed to continue missile tests on a “weekly” basis and threatened “all out war” if the US takes military action.

Vice Foreign Minister Han Song-Ryol was speaking amid rising tensions over the country’s military ambitions.

He told the BBC: “We'll be conducting more missile tests on a weekly, monthly and yearly basis.”

The minister said military action from the US would result in "all out war".

North Korea has conducted several missile and nuclear tests in defiance of UN sanctions and has said it has developed a missile that can strike the US mainland.

Its latest missile test on Sunday failed a few seconds after launch.

Earlier, US Vice President Mike Pence warned North Korea that recent US strikes in Syria, one of the secretive country’s few close allies, and Afghanistan showed that the resolve of President Donald Trump should not be tested.

He claimed the Americans’ “era of strategic patience” with the nation was over.

Mr Pence said: “Just in the past two weeks, the world witnessed the strength and resolve of our new president in actions taken in Syria and Afghanistan.

"North Korea would do well not to test his resolve or the strength of the armed forces of the United States in this region."

The US Navy this month struck a Syrian airfield with 59 Tomahawk missiles after a chemical weapons attack.

On Thursday, the US military said it had dropped the largest non-nuclear device it had unleashed in combat on a network of caves and tunnels used by Islamic State in Afghanistan.