The test-firing of a new ballistic missile by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea early on Sunday has once more escalated tensions on the already volatile Korean Peninsula.

The successful test was of a "new type of strategic weapon system", according to Korean Central News Agency, one powered by high thrust solid fuel rather than liquid fuel, which gives such missiles longer range and makes them harder to detect before launch by satellite surveillance.

It was the DPRK's first missile test since Donald Trump was inaugurated as US president, and it has been widely interpreted as also being a test to see what the new US administration's response will be.