Japan's government was trying to confirm the report of the launch, which could have taken place earlier Sunday, Kyodo News said.

Asked about the report, a Japanese foreign ministry official said: "We have unconfirmed reports about a missile."

The communist state shocked the world in 1998 by firing a missile over Japan into the Pacific Ocean.

The report comes as North Korea is locked in a standoff over its nuclear ambitions, with Pyongyang's state media saying Saturday that no resolution would be possible with US President George W. Bush in office.

Pyongyang has accused Washington of seeking to topple its government and announced on February 10 that it possesses nuclear weapons to defend itself.

In April, North Korea said it had shut down its nuclear power plant at Yongbyon and was preparing to reprocess the plant's spent fuel, a move that could result in the production of enough plutonium to build up to six more nuclear bombs.

Little progress has been made in efforts to end the nuclear standoff since it erupted in October 2002.

The last six-nation talks on the crisis -- which involve the two Koreas, China, the United States, Japan and Russia -- were held last June and US envoy Christopher Hill on a tour of Asia last week was downbeat on chances for an early resumption of dialogue.

Japan is locked in a separate standoff with North Korea over the communist state's abductions of Japanese nationals up to the 1980s.

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