North Korea could test-fire this month a long-range missile designed to strike U.S. territory and may also be gearing up for skirmishes with the South around their disputed sea border, South Korean news reports said today (June 1).

North Korea last week unleashed provocations rarely seen since the 1950-53 Korean War with a nuclear test that put it closer to having a working atomic bomb, short-range missile tests and threats to attack the South. It also warned of further measures if the United Nations tries to punish it.

In another move that could further stoke tensions, North Korea will hold a trial on Thursday for two US journalists it took into custody along its border with China several months ago after charging them with "hostile acts".

The growing belligerence is seen as an attempt to bolster the position of leader Kim Jong-il, whose suspected stroke in August raised questions about his grip on power, as well as improve the country's weaponry and pressure regional powers into giving concessions for its disarmament.

North Korea is preparing to launch an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) with an estimated range of 4,000 km to 6,500 km (2,485 to 4,000 miles) from a west coast base, the daily JoongAng Ilbo cited South Korean intelligence sources as saying.

"Preparations for the launch are likely to be completed in mid-June," one intelligence source said. Government officials would not confirm the reports.

Train cars carrying a missile departed from the Pyongyang area about two weeks ago for a missile base on the North's west coast, the sources said.

Investors said the recent rumblings have raised concern about the threat posed by the North but have not caused long-term harm to financial markets or headed off a rally in foreign purchases of Seoul shares since mid-May.

Troubles at sea

North Korea in April fired a rocket from its east coast Musudan-ri missile range, which was widely seen as a disguised test of its long-range Taepodong-2 missile that violated U.N. resolutions banning it from ballistic missile launches.

That rocket splashed down in the Pacific Ocean about 3,000 km after launch, experts said, indicating the North needed further testing to perfect its ICBM technology. The Alaskan coast is about 4,800 km from North Korea while the US West Coast is at least 8,000 km away.

"The launch of what North Korea called a satellite in April failed to show inter-continental capabilities, so they want to show it this time around," said Kim Tae-woo, a weapons expert at the Korea Institute for Defence Analysis.

Prickly North Korea has threatened to test-fire an ICBM if the UN Security Council does not apologise for tightening sanctions after the April rocket launch.

Western diplomats said Russia and China have agreed in principle that North Korea should be sanctioned for its nuclear test, but it was not clear what kind of penalties they would support. Both are generally reluctant to approve sanctions.

North Korea has not mastered the technology of miniaturising a nuclear warhead to mount on a missile, weapons experts have said.

"The international community will never accept the North's plan to be recognised as a nuclear state," South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said in a radio address.

North Korea has also declared a wide area of Yellow Sea waters off its west coast off limits until the end of July because it may be preparing for a clash with the South, a report in South Korea's biggest newspaper, the Chosun Ilbo, said.

The two Koreas fought deadly battles in 1999 and 2002 near a Yellow Sea border called the Northern Limit Line, set by US-led UN forces at the end of the Korean War.

The North has said the border is invalid and last week warned ships from the South it could not guarantee their safety if they sailed in that area. – Reuters