SEOUL (Reuters) -&nbsp;North&nbsp;Korea&nbsp;fired&nbsp;two&nbsp;ballistic&nbsp;missiles&nbsp;into the sea off its east coast late on Monday,&nbsp;South&nbsp;Korea's military said, hours&nbsp;after&nbsp;a U.S. nuclear-powered&nbsp;submarine&nbsp;arrived in a naval base in the&nbsp;South.
Japan's defence ministry also reported the launch of what it said were&nbsp;two&nbsp;ballistic&nbsp;missiles&nbsp;by&nbsp;North&nbsp;Korea, both of which fell outside its exclusive economic zone.
The launches come amid heightened tensions on the&nbsp;Korean peninsula as&nbsp;South&nbsp;Korea&nbsp;and the United States take steps to increase their military readiness against&nbsp;North&nbsp;Korea's weapons programme with the deployment of U.S. strategic military assets.
North&nbsp;Korea&nbsp;has reacted angrily, saying such a deployment could meet the criteria for its&nbsp;use of nuclear weapons.
The United States said it was consulting closely with its allies about the&nbsp;North&nbsp;Korean missile launches, which it described as being destabilising.
In a statement on Monday, the U.S. military added the launches posed no immediate threat to U.S. personnel and territory or to U.S. allies.
Earlier on Monday, a nuclear-powered U.S.&nbsp;submarine&nbsp;entered a naval base in&nbsp;South&nbsp;Korea's&nbsp;southern island of Jeju to load military supplies while on an unspecified operational mission, the&nbsp;South&nbsp;Korean navy said.
Over the weekend, the&nbsp;North&nbsp;fired a barrage of cruise&nbsp;missiles&nbsp;into the sea off its west coast.
Last week,&nbsp;North&nbsp;Korea&nbsp;conducted ballistic missile tests&nbsp;after&nbsp;a nuclear-armed U.S.&nbsp;submarine&nbsp;arrived at a&nbsp;South&nbsp;Korean port for the first time since the 1980s.
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(Reporting by Jack Kim in Seoul, Chang-Ran Kim in Tokyo and Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Alison Williams, Andrew Heavens and Chris Reese)

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North Korea fires two missiles after US submarine arrives in South