WASHINGTON, Feb 3: North Korea seems to be preparing to test-fire its longest-range missile, a US official and reports said on Tuesday, a move that would heighten tensions amid stalled disarmament talks and icy relations with South Korea.

“There are some signs that the North Koreans are preparing for a Taepodong-2 launch,” the US counter-proliferation official said.

“But whether it will carry out the launch or not is entirely unclear, as is the timing for a possible launch,” said the official.

Earlier, a source quoted by Seoul’s Yonhap news agency said US and South Korean intelligence agencies had recently spotted a train carrying a long cylindrical object believed to be a Taepodong-2 missile which is theoretically capable of hitting the United States.

Launch preparations were likely to be completed in a month or two at a new west coast site, the source said. South Korea’s defence ministry and National Intelligence Service refused to comment.

Japan’s Sankei Shimbun newspaper said spy satellites had detected a large container capable of housing a missile being delivered to the site at Tongchang, about 40 kms south of the border with China.

The paper said frequent truck movements had been spotted at the site and launch preparations could be completed in one or two months for what could be a remodelled version of the Taepodong-2.

The missile has a maximum range of 6,700 kms, meaning it could theoretically target Alaska.Analysts said the North was trying to push the new US administration back to the negotiating table and to strengthen its bargaining position.

Nuclear disarmament talks with the North, involving the US and four regional powers, are deadlocked over how the communist state’s atomic disclosures should be verified.

Reports of the planned launch also come amid rising tensions with Seoul.

The North announced Friday it was cancelling all peace accords with its neighbour and on Sunday warned of a possible military conflict.

Ryoo Kihl-Jae, of the University of North Korean Studies, told Yonhap Pyongyang was angling for quicker dialogue with Washington amid frayed ties with Seoul.

Baek Seung-Joo of the Korea Institute for Defence Analyses said there would be a significant time gap between preparations and any launch.

“North Koreans seek warmer ties with the Obama administration, not strained relations, at the beginning,” he said.

Baek said the North wanted to get the attention of the US administration and gain the upper hand in upcoming negotiations with it.

North Korea staged an atomic test in 2006 and is thought to have enough plutonium for six or so bombs. Experts differ on whether it has miniaturised a bomb that could fit on a missile.

“I don’t think the North Koreans are yet capable of producing a sophisticated nuclear warhead device to fit on a long-range missile,” Baek said.

North Korea sparked regional alarm in 1998 by launching a shorter-range Taepodong-1 missile over Japan from its east coast launch site at Musudan-ri.

In July 2006 it launched a Taepodong-2 missile from there but US officials said it failed after about 40 seconds.

Daniel Pinkston, senior analyst with the International Crisis Group think-tank, said the launch site being built at Tongchang could be completed by the end of this year and a launch could be held even before then.

He said any long-range missile launch “would get the attention of the Obama administration. There are so many things on Obama’s plate, but this would force everyone to take notice.” Pinkston said any launch might put a satellite in orbit.

Whatever the motive, such an achievement would earn leader Kim Jong-Il “tremendous domestic political benefit” — especially if it preceded South Korea’s first domestic satellite launch planned for June.—AFP