As a result, the Japanese destroyer Kongo equipped with an Aegis missile tracking system has been ordered home from the Sea of Japan (East Sea) facing the Korean peninsula, the major daily Yomiuri said, quoting Japanese Defence Agency sources.

North Korean military activities stepped up in early September, including vehicular movement in and around ballistic missile sites, alerting the United States and its Asian allies against a possible missile launch.

"The series of the military activities seem to have just been exercises by North Korean forces," Yomiuri quoted a government source as saying. "Though the activities have not ceased completely, 70 percent of the forces have returned to normal operations."

North Korea's Rodong missile, with a range of some 1,300 kilometersmiles), can hit most areas in Japan.

North Korea, at the centre of an international outcry against its nuclear arms ambitions, stunned the world in 1998 when it fired a Taepodong-1 missile over Japan, claiming it was a satellite launch.

Japan sent the Aegis-equipped destroyer Myoko on September 21 to the Sea of Japan to monitor North Korean activity, along with patrols by an EP-3 surveillance plane. The Myoko was replaced by the Kongo early this month.

The United States sent similar destroyers to the Sea of Japan.

On Monday, the US Aegis-guided missile cruiser Lake Erie called at the Japanese port of Niigata to give crew members a rest and to replenish supplies, according to press reports.

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