N. Korea may be preparing missile launch - sources

The US and Japan have detected signs that North Korea is preparing to launch a ballistic missile capable of reaching almost anywhere in Japan, Japanese government sources said yesterday.

The preparations were detected after the reclusive communist state refused to take part in a fourth round of six-party talks on ending its nuclear ambitions and said it would never give up its nuclear deterrent.

Tokyo and Washington had detected the signs after analysing data from reconnaissance satellites and radio traffic, the Japanese government sources said.

North Korean military vehicles, soldiers and possibly missile engineers were converging on several Rodong missile bases in the northeastern part of the isolated communist state, they said.

The signs were first detected on Tuesday, the sources said.

"At this stage we don't think North Korea's missile launch is imminent," one source told Reuters on condition of anonymity. "But we still don't know whether North Korea is serious about missile launches."

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said late yesterday North Korea was unlikely to test-fire another ballistic missile, Kyodo news reported.

"The reports I've had say it is nothing to make a fuss about," Kyodo quoted Koizumi as telling reporters. "I think the possibility of launching one is low." He didn't elaborate.

NHK television quoted several unidentified Japanese government sources as saying that a missile launch now would be impossible from a common sense point of view with talks between Japanese and North Korean officials over the question of Japanese abducted by the North due to start in two days.

Pyongyang said yesterday the United States had chosen Japan as a "strategic vantage point" to implement a pre-emptive attack, a move it said aimed to bring North Korea under US control.

"(The United States) plans to use Japan as an advance base in hurling into the Korean Peninsula a task force from its mainland and other areas in case of its emergency," said Rodong Sinmun, the North's main daily newspaper.

North Korea shocked the world when it fired a missile over Japan in 1998. The test of the Taepodong ballistic missile demonstrated that major population areas, including Tokyo, were within the estimated 1,000-km range of the missile.

South Korean Vice Unification Minister Rhee Bong-jo said yesterday he could not rule out the possibility of North Korea test-firing a missile again.

"Activities related to North Korea's missiles have been detected recently," Mr Rhee told reporters in Seoul.

"But our assessment is that they are likely part of an annual exercise by a North Korean missile unit," he said. "We cannot rule out the possibility of a test firing, so South Korean and US authorities are following the indications."

Japan's defence ministry on Tuesday sent two destroyers - one equipped with an Aegis radar system - and an EP-3 electronic surveillance aircraft to the Sea of Japan to boost its early warning and surveillance abilities, the government sources said.

Many of the Rodong missiles are stored underground, but there were no signs that liquid fuel had been injected into any, the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper quoted government sources as saying.

The newspaper quoted missile experts as saying it could take up to two weeks to prepare for a launch.

North Korea is thought to have one or two nuclear bombs and experts believe it has deployed as many as 200 Rodong missiles, which have a range of about 1,300 km and are capable of hitting Japan.