When the North Korean regime last tried to test a long-range missile in 2006, at "about the same time they also launched six other missiles," said General Walter Sharp, commander of US forces in South Korea.

"And we are watching very closely to see what else they will do between the fourth and the eighth April, and that we're prepared for that," Sharp told a senate hearing, referring to the scheduled North Korean rocket launch.

His comments came amid growing tension on the Korean peninsula as the Pyongyang regime presses ahead with plans to launch a communications satellite that Washington and its allies suspect is likely a test of a long-range ballistic missile.

Echoing previous comments by top military officers, Sharp and the commander for the Pacific region, Admiral Timothy Keating, said they were confident that any North Korean missile threatening US targets could be shot down with anti-missile weaponry.

Asked by Senator Joe Lieberman what the probability was of shooting down a ballistic missile aimed at the United States, Keating said: "We have a high probability, senator."

North Korea has resisted pressure to call off the launch and warned that any attempt to shoot it down would be regarded as an act of war.

The Japanese government said it is considering re-positioning land and sea-based interceptor missiles to be able to shoot down a North Korean rocket if it threatens to hit its territory.

Japan, which has been developing a missile defence system with the United States, has warned that it is ready to shoot down any missile headed for its territory.

The US military commanders said that they had enough missile defense weapons, including Patriot missiles, to defend against the potential North Korean threat but said they could use more.

Pyongyang had more than 800 missiles and the United States had 64 Patriot missiles on the Korean peninsula, while South Korea had just purchased an additional 24 Patriots, Sharp said.

"Could we use more? Yes," he said.

The general added that the military was working to ensure the Patriot missiles were positioned in the best way "to be able to defend our most critical war-fighting assets."

"But it does leave other areas uncovered, and we could -- both we and the Republic of Korea -- could use more, and we're working hard at that."

It remained unclear whether North Korea was planning to launch a ballistic missile or a satellite, Keating told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

"I don't believe the intelligence community has information that would specifically rule out either option. It is a missile body that could be used for either," the admiral said.

earlier related report
NKorea detains two US journalists
The United States has expressed concern to North Korea after its border guards detained two American journalists along the frontier with China, the US State Department said Thursday.

The incident comes amid rising tensions in the region as Pyongyang prepares a long-range rocket launch for early next month.

The pair were taken into custody Tuesday "across the Tumen river by what appear to be North Korean border guards," department press officer Fred Lash told AFP.

"We are working with Chinese government officials in that particular area to ascertain the whereabouts and welfare of the Americans in question," he added.

"We've also been in touch with North Korean officials to express our concern about the situation."

State Department spokesman Robert Wood could not confirm if US officials had yet been in contact with the Swedish embassy in Pyongyang, which represents Washington's interests in the hardline communist state.

"We're trying to ascertain all of the facts. We do know that these two Americans were taken into custody,"

Diplomatic sources and media reports identified the two women as Euna Lee, a Korean American, and Laura Ling, a Chinese American, who work for Current TV in California.

The Tumen river marks the border between China and North Korea and is a common escape route for refugees fleeing the North. It was unclear on which side of the border the journalists were seized.

A diplomatic source told AFP the two were held by security guards over "suspected border violations" after being caught Tuesday shooting video on the North's side of the river.

A human rights activist and Protestant pastor who helped arrange their trip to China confirmed to AFP that they had been held since Tuesday together with their Chinese guide, an ethnic Korean.

"They apparently got too close to the North Korean side of the Tumen River" when they were seized, said Chun Kiwon, speaking by telephone from New York.

Chun said they had met him in Seoul to ask for his advice on their mission, and entered China last Friday.

"They told me they were going to do a programme on North Koreans who have fled the North," said Chun, who heads a missionary group providing assistance to North Korean defectors.

In Beijing, a foreign ministry spokesman said China was "investigating the issue involving relevant US nationals on the border between China and the DPRK (North Korea)" but did not elaborate.

Tensions are high over the North's plans to launch what it calls a communications satellite sometime between April 4-8.

The United States and South Korea say its real purpose is to test a Taepodong-2 missile, theoretically capable of reaching Alaska, in violation of a UN resolution passed after missile and nuclear tests in 2006.

Pyongyang for its part is angry about a US-South Korean military exercise which it has described as a rehearsal for an invasion. The drill ends Friday.

The North has also told the US that it no longer wants to receive food aid, according to the State Department.

However, it has in the past freed Americans it has detained.

In 1996, then-US congressman Bill Richardson negotiated the release of US citizen Evan Hunziker, who had been detained for three months on suspicion of spying after swimming the Yalu river.

Richardson, who is now New Mexico governor, at the time described Hunziker as a confused young man who had engaged in an "adventuresome frolic apparently under the influence of alcohol."

In 1994 Richardson helped negotiate the release of a US military helicopter pilot shot down after straying into North Korea.

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