North Korea

But as North Korea analyst and sports fan Michael Madden explains, that is unlikely to be the case.

North Korea has pursued "sports diplomacy" as a matter of national policy since the 1980s.

It is one - distinctly non-politicised - way for the politically isolated North to interact with the outside world and benefit from intercultural contact and exchanges.

The missiles, believed to be Scud-types, were launched from the western city of Hwangju, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.

They flew some 500km and 600km (311 to 373 miles), with a range enough to reach all of South Korea.

It comes after the US and the South said they would deploy an anti-missile system to counter the threats.

Tensions have soared since Pyongyang carried out its fourth nuclear test in January, followed by a series of missile launches.

It says the missile was launched in waters east of the Korean peninsula - the latest in a recent series of tests.

North Korea, which is developing nuclear weapons, is banned by UN resolutions from any use of ballistic missile technology.

The US and South Korea on Friday agreed to deploy a missile defence system to counter threats from Pyongyang.

The South Korean military says the missile was launched at about 11:30 local time (02:30 GMT) off North Korea's port of Sinpo.

The statement, coming just a day after it said it is ready to conduct more rocket launches any time it sees fit, has heightened concerns the North may soon either conduct a launch — which Washington and its allies see as a pretext for testing missile technology — or hold another test of nuclear weapons that it could conceivably place on such a rocket.

The countries made the announcement after three days of intense talks aimed at pulling the rivals back from the brink of war.

During the talks at the border village of Panmunjom, North Korea also agreed to lift a "quasi-state of war" that it had declared last week, chief South Korean negotiator and presidential security adviser Kim Kwan-jin told a televised briefing.

The closed-door meeting at Panmunjom, where the armistice ending fighting in the Korean War was agreed to in 1953, began early Saturday evening, shortly after a deadline set by North Korea for the South to dismantle loudspeakers broadcasting anti-North Korean propaganda at their border, said an official from South Korea's Unification Ministry.

North Korea had declared that its front-line troops were in full war readiness and prepared to go to battle if Seoul did not back down.