The United States stressed it would never accept the North as a nuclear-armed state and warned that more atomic tests could spark an arms race in East Asia.

"A train carrying a long-range missile has been spotted at the weapons research centre near Pyongyang," South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted an intelligence source as saying.

The source said it was expected to take about two weeks before the North places the missile on a launch pad and prepares it for firing.

Two defence officials in Washington said Friday that US satellite photos had shown vehicle activity at two launch sites in the North, one in the west and one in the east.

The movements resembled work done before the North fired a long-range rocket on April 5, the officials told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Diplomats at the United Nations Security Council are discussing a new resolution which could impose new sanctions to punish the North for Monday's nuclear test -- its second since 2006.

Pyongyang says it will take "additional self-defence measures" in response to any sanctions.

"If the UN Security Council (UNSC) provokes us, our additional self-defence measures will be inevitable," its foreign ministry said Friday.

"The world will soon witness how our army and people stand up against oppression and despotism by the UNSC and uphold their dignity and independence."

The North has further fuelled tensions in the past week by launching six short-range missiles, renouncing the armistice that ended the Korean War in 1953 and threatening possible attacks on South Korea.

Analysts believe ailing leader Kim Jong-Il is trying to bolster his authority to prepare for an eventual succession.

They say the North is not interested in further disarmament negotiations unless it is accepted as a nuclear-armed state.

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates insists that will not happen.

"The policy of the United States has not changed. Our goal is complete and verifiable denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula, and we will not accept North Korea as a nuclear state," he told a Singapore security conference.

"North Korea's nuclear programme and actions constitute a threat to regional peace and security," Gates said, adding they pose "the potential for some kind of an arms race here in this region."

South Korean and US forces on the peninsula are on heightened alert for any border clashes.

The North walked out of six-nation nuclear disarmament talks after the Security Council condemned its April 5 rocket launch and tightened existing sanctions.

The United States is sending two diplomats to consult the other nations negotiating with the North -- China, South Korea, Japan and Russia.

Stephen Bosworth, the special envoy on North Korea, and Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg will head Sunday to Tokyo and later visit China, South Korea and Russia, the State Department said.

Kim Jong-Il "is determined to go out with a bang and not a whimper," US analyst Marcus Noland wrote in The National newspaper in Abu Dhabi.

"Severely weakened by a stroke last year, the emaciated Kim has been frenetically delivering 'on-the-spot guidance,' as if to reassure himself and his country that he is still in control.

"This week's nuclear test was the most recent and grandiose move to seal his legacy."

earlier related report
NKorea fires short-range missile, warns of action
North Korea fired another short-range missile on Friday and threatened fresh steps if world powers impose sanctions for its nuclear test, amid signs it may be readying a new long-range launch.

The United States said it was sending its North Korea envoy to the jittery region, where Chinese fishing boats were fleeing a sensitive part of the Yellow Sea in fear of potential naval clashes.

The communist North, which has warned it could launch an attack on the South, vowed to respond to any fresh sanctions imposed by the United Nations.

"If the UN Security Council provokes us, our additional self-defence measures will be inevitable," the North's foreign ministry said in a statement carried by official media.

"The world will soon witness how our army and people stand up against oppression and despotism by the UNSC and uphold their dignity and independence."

Tensions have been running high since Kim Jong-Il's regime said it tested a nuclear bomb on Monday for the second time and renounced the armistice that ended the Korean War in 1953.

North Korea test-fired another missile off its east coast Friday, the sixth this week, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency.

There was no immediate confirmation but the agency's reports of five launches earlier this week were later confirmed by Pyongyang.

In Washington, two US defence officials said that satellite photos suggest North Korea may now be preparing to launch a long-range ballistic missile.

Vehicle movements at two missile sites resemble work done before North Korea fired a long-range rocket last month, the officials told AFP on condition of anonymity.

One of the sites is in the east of the country and the other is in the west, the officials added, without giving further details.

With US and South Korean troops on high alert, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates was due to consult his counterparts from South Korea and Japan on Saturday at a regional conference in Singapore.

Stephen Bosworth, the US special envoy on North Korea, and Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg will head Sunday to Tokyo and later visit China, South Korea and Russia, the State Department said.

The countries were part of six-nation talks that agreed in 2007 to provide aid and security guarantees to North Korea in return for denuclearisation.

Pyongyang stormed out of the accord last month in protest after the UN Security Council unanimously condemned its long-range missile launch.

The Council has been discussing a potential resolution -- stronger than last month's statement -- to condemn the North's nuclear test. But it was not yet clear if that would include new sanctions.

Gates, en route to Singapore, accused the North of "very provocative, aggressive" actions. But he also tried to calm nerves, stressing the United States was not planning any military action.

Gates said he was unaware of any unusual troop movements in the North, which has around 1.1 million soldiers, compared with 680,000 South Korean and 28,500 US troops south of the border.

"I don't think there is a need for us to reinforce our military presence in the South. Should the North Koreans do something extremely provocative militarily, then we have the forces to deal with it," he added.

The North may take further steps following its latest verbal statement, which aims to send a "strong warning" to the Security Council, said Professor Yang Moo-Jin at Seoul's University of North Korean Studies.

"The North may put its military on a war footing, test-fire a long-range missile and restart the plutonium reprocessing facilities at Yongbyon," he told AFP.

The North could also stage a third nuclear test but this would come much later than the other steps, Yang said.

In a possible sign of trouble ahead, Chinese fishing boats were leaving the tense border area in the Yellow Sea where the two Koreas fought deadly naval clashes in 1999 and 2002, South Korea's defence ministry said.

"As this could be a signal foreboding a possible provocation by the North, we are watching the situation closely," ministry spokesman Won Tae-Jae said.

Pyongyang warned Wednesday it could not guarantee the safety of US or South Korean ships after Seoul said it was joining a US-led international effort to stop the trade in weapons of mass destruction.

But some experts question North Korea's military capabilities. A US official in Washington said on condition of anonymity that initial US radioactivity tests had not yet confirmed Pyongyang's nuclear test.

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