North Korea declared on Thursday it would have a plan ready by "mid-August" to launch four missiles into waters near the US territory of Guam, as it branded Donald Trump's threats as "nonsense".

With tensions between the US and Kim Jong-un's rogue state escalating, critics accused Mr Trump of inflaming the situation with "reckless" sabre-rattling.

Dismissing his threats as "a load of nonsense", the rogue state ridiculed the US president as a "guy bereft of reason" and said only "absolute force can work on him".