Officials in Seoul and Washington say there are signs the communist state is preparing to test the Taepodong-2, which has a range of 6,700 kilometres (4,100 miles) and could theoretically reach Alaska.

The reports, based on satellite photos, come amid stalled six-nation nuclear disarmament talks and rising inter-Korean tensions. The North has scrapped a non-aggression pact with the South and warned of possible conflict.

Pyongyang has also staked out a tough negotiating position in the disarmament talks involving the US and four regional powers.

Seoul's foreign ministry spokesman noted that the UN Security Council in 2006 adopted resolutions "expressing serious concerns over the North's missile programme and delivering a firm message."

"If the North lobs a missile, it would constitute a clear breach of the UN resolution," said the spokesman, Moon Tae-Young.

The US State Department has said any test would be "provocative" and China Thursday stressed the need for regional stability.

"We hope all the parties can recognise that maintaining stability is in the common interest" of all the people on the Korean peninsula, foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said in Beijing when asked about the reported missile test plans.

The North carried out long-range missile tests in 1998 and 2006, sparking international condemnation. Experts disagree on whether it is technically capable of fitting missiles with a nuclear warhead.

The Taepodong-2 launched in 2006 failed after 40 seconds, according to US officials. A Seoul government source told Yonhap news agency the missile spotted recently is believed to be a modified version.

A pro-Pyongyang newspaper, in a website report Thursday, noted media speculation about a launch and appeared to suggest it may go ahead in March.

Choson Sinbo, published in Japan, said "massive military exercises" are held every March by US and South Korean forces.

"In light of the current situation, stronger measures are likely to be taken should moves provoking the DPRK (North Korea) and irritating its military continue," it said.

The North's relations with South Korea soured last spring after conservative President Lee Myung-Bak took office and rolled back the "sunshine" engagement policy of his liberal predecessors.

Lee linked major economic aid to denuclearisation and said he would review summit pacts signed by the North and his predecessors.

A US expert who visited Pyongyang last month described Lee's stance on the summit deals as a "disastrous, historic mistake."

Selig Harrison told a Washington think-tank Wednesday the posture served to "revive North Korean fears that South Korea, the United States and Japan want regime change and absorption."

The North's leader, Kim Jong-Il, who turns 67 this month, is widely reported to have suffered a stroke last August. Harrison said hawks have come to dominate defence policy in Pyongyang since then.

"North Korea has suddenly adopted a much harder line (in six-party negotiations) than before and the question is why," he said.

Though some analysts believe it is a bargaining posture aimed at the new US administration, Harrison stressed the fallout from Kim's illness and political changes in South Korea as contributing factors.

The academic, confirming earlier reports, said he believes Kim has a greatly reduced work schedule.

"He has turned over day-to-day management of domestic affairs to his brother-in-law Jang Song-Taek and foreign affairs and defence policy is now largely in the hands of hawks in the National Defence Commission," Harrison said.

earlier related report
NKorean harder line linked to leader's illness: expert
North Korea is taking a harder line in the six-party nuclear negotiations as hawks now dominate defense policy following the illness of leader Kim Jong-Il, a US expert said Wednesday.

Selig Harrison, speaking at a Washington think tank following his trip to North Korea last month, said the harder line also reflected fears that South Korea, under new President Lee Myung-Bak, wanted to absorb the North.

"North Korea has suddenly adopted a much harder line than before and the question is why," Harrison told an audience at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

Though some analysts believed it was a "bargaining posture" toward the new US administration of President Barack Obama, he stressed two other factors: the fallout from the leader's illness and political changes in South Korea.

The Obama administration aims to pursue talks with the two Koreas, China, Japan and Russia to scrap North Korea's weapons-grade nuclear programs, but the talks are deadlocked over a row about disarmament verification.

North Korean officials he met with dismissed reports of Kim's stroke in August as a "fabrication," but Harrison said that he believed the reports and that, according to "several well-informed sources," Kim has a greatly reduced work schedule.

"He has turned over day-to-day management of domestic affairs to his brother-in-law Jang Song-Thaek and foreign affairs and defense policy is now largely in the hands of hawks in the national defense commission," he said.

He also said it was "a disastrous, historic mistake" for President Lee to say he will review the North-South summit declarations of June 2000 and October 2007 because it served to "revive North Korean fears that South Korea, the United States and Japan want regime change and absorption.

"They're especially sensitive about this with Kim Jong-Il ill," Harrison said.

He added that he "found no evidence that the sons are being taken seriously" as successors to Kim but said one of them might serve as a "figurehead," with Jang and the military running affairs of state.

Repeating remarks he gave to media in Beijing after his January 13-17 trip to Pyongyang, he said that all the officials he met said North Korea has already "weaponized" the 69 pounds (31 kilograms) of plutonium acknowledged in the declaration submitted last year to its five partners in the negotiations.

That amount is enough for four or five weapons, he added.

Harrison said key people he met with were Li Gun, a top foreign ministry official and nuclear negotiator, Foreign Minister Pak Ui-Chun, and General Ri Chan Bok, spokesman of the National Defense Commission.

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