NORTH KOREA said yesterday it was finalising a plan to fire four ballistic missiles into the waters around the US Pacific outpost of Guam.

The plan was announced after US media quoted military sources saying the Pentagon had identified “at least two dozen” targets in North Korea.

Both countries said the attacks would be ready to launch if the order was given.

The confrontation between the world’s oldest and newest nuclear powers has intensified in recent months, with the US carrying out 11 practice bombing raids near the border since May.

Pyongyang’s continued missile tests have drawn condemnation and the UN recently agreed its harshest sanctions yet on the North.

But Kuwait was the first country yesterday to announce it would ignore the sanctions and keep bringing in North Korean workers.

Thousands of North Koreans are employed across the Gulf, providing skilled labour at cheap prices and sending much of what they earn back to the state.