South Korea and the United States were monitoring North Korea for a possible missile test launch on Wednesday, officials said amid heightened tensions on the peninsula.
South Korea blamed the North for hacking attacks that paralyzed networks of financial firms and broadcasters last month, and Chinese travel firms said tours were suspended across the border.
North Korea moved two medium-range Musudan missiles to the eastern coast and deployed them on mobile launchers last week, according to intelligence released by Seoul.
The rockets appeared to have been fuelled and made ready to launch, US Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Locklear was quoted by CNN as telling a Senate committee on Tuesday.
The US-South Korean Combined Forces Command stepped up monitoring the intelligence staff, an unnamed military official was quoted as saying on Wednesday by Yonhap News Agency.
Pyongyang could fire a missile soon to mark the April 15 birthday of Kim Il Sung, the country’s late founder and grandfather of current leader Kim Jong Un, according to officials quoted by Yonhap.
The Musudan rockets are thought to be untested, but have an estimated range of 4,000 kilometres, reaching the whole peninsula, Japan, and the US military base on the Pacific island of Guam.
As many as five mobile launchers have been spotted in the North’s eastern province of South Hamkyung, raising the possibility of test-firing other smaller rockets as well, Yonhap reported, citing satellite imagery.
“There are clear signs that the North could simultaneously fire off Musudan, Scud and Nodong missiles,” Yonhap quoted a government source as saying on condition of anonymity.
Scuds can reach 300-500 kilometres, and Nodongs have a range of 1,300 to 1,500 kilometres.
The South Korean navy deployed two Aegis destroyers with high-performance radar on Friday to monitor the coasts.
The army has activated a ground-based defence radar system and an early-warning aircraft, Yonhap quoted military officials as saying on Wednesday.
Tokyo has set up anti-missile batteries in the Japanese capital, news reports said on Tuesday.
US forces in the Pacific were ready and able to intercept a missile fired from North Korea, Admiral Locklear said on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, South Korean officials said the North was behind recent cyber attacks, Yonhap news agency reported.
“An analysis of cyber terror access logs, malicious code and North Korean intelligence showed that the attack methods were similar to those used by the North’s Reconnaissance General Bureau, which has led hacking attacks against South Korea,” Lee Seung-won, an official at the Ministry of Science, ICT & Future Planning, said.
Three South Korean banks, their insurance affiliates and three television stations were hit by malicious code that infected some 48,000 computers in their networks on March 20. Another round of attacks hit television affiliate servers and anti-Pyongyang websites on March 25 and 26.
In reaction to the tensions on the Korean Peninsula, travel firms in north-eastern China said tours to the North were on hold.
“Yes, we temporarily suspended programmes to North Korea for the sake of safety,” said Zhang Yongqiang, an employee of Dandong China International Travel Service in the border city of Dandong.
But tours appeared to be operating normally for foreign groups from outside China, said Simon Cockerell of Beijing-based Koryo Tours, one of the main international travel firms for North Korea.