A satellite photo taken Sunday clearly showed a missile on the launch pad at Musudan-ri on the northeast coast, just days before the scheduled blast-off.

The communist state says it will launch a satellite for peaceful space research between April 4-8. The United States, Japan and South Korea say this is a pretext for testing its intercontinental missile, the Taepodong-2.

South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak, in an interview published Monday by Britain's Financial Times, said the North's stated plan would cause no qualms if it had no nuclear programme.

"But the truth of the matter is North Korea does have a desire to develop nuclear weapons, so this does precisely make it a very serious concern for them to acquire the technology to deliver nuclear weapons," he was quoted as saying.

The North tested a nuclear weapon in October 2006. Six-nation nuclear disarmament talks are currently stalled.

The planned launch is "a very serious concern," Lee said.

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said Sunday it was North Korea's "long-term intent" to arm such a missile with a nuclear warhead but he believed it was not currently able to do so.

Gates, speaking on "Fox News Sunday," said the launch appears imminent but the US would not shoot the rocket down.

"I think if we had a missile that was heading for Hawaii, that looked like it was headed for Hawaii or something like that, we might consider it. I don't think we have any plans to do anything like that at this point," Gates said.

The US defence chief said Washington believes the launch is "intended as a mask for the development of an intercontinental ballistic missile" and called the programme "very troubling."

Gates also appeared to support speculation that the regime of Kim Jong-Il may plan a second nuclear test.

"If this is Kim Jong-Il's welcoming present to a new (US) president, launching a missile like this and threatening to have a nuclear test, I think it says a lot about the imperviousness of this regime in North Korea to any kind of diplomatic overtures," he said.

Pyongyang rejected a proposed visit by Washington's new North Korea envoy Stephen Bosworth during his regional tour this month.

Washington, Seoul and Tokyo say they will refer any launch to the United Nations Security Council as a breach of a resolution passed after the North's 2006 missile and nuclear tests.

The North has vowed that the mere discussion of the launch by the Council will cause the breakdown of the six-party talks and provoke "necessary strong measures."

The Choson Sinbo, a pro-Pyongyang newspaper published in Japan, has hinted that the North could resort to a second nuclear test should the UN sanction it.

Japan has deployed missile systems to try to shoot down the rocket should it start falling towards Japanese territory.

Two US warships with missile-tracking Aegis technology were to leave the southern South Korean port of Busan Monday, a spokesman for the US forces in Korea said, without indicating whether they would monitor the launch.

Lee has rolled back a decade-long "sunshine" engagement policy on the North and linked major economic aid to its progress on nuclear disarmament.

Pyongyang has reacted furiously, scrapping all peace pacts with the South and occasionally blocking access to a Seoul-funded joint industrial estate at Kaesong north of the border.

In a move set to further escalate tensions, Seoul officials said Monday that North Korea has detained a South Korean employee at the Kaesong complex for allegedly criticising its political system.

In central Seoul, 70 protesters burned a model of a missile and a picture of the North Korean leader.

"It's nonsense! The starving North Koreans are launching a rocket," read one placard.

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