AFP - North Korea has placed a long-range missile on a launch pad, a US official confirmed Wednesday, raising prospects that it may soon go ahead with a launch that has alarmed the United States and its allies.
  
The counter-proliferation official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Japanese press reports that a long-range missile has been placed on a launch pad "are accurate."
  
The official said the missile was believed to be a Taepo-dong 2, a long range missile that could in theory reach Alaska.
  
NBC News, citing US officials, said two stages of the missile were visible but the top is covered with a shroud supported by a crane.
  
North Korea has said it intends to launch a satellite over Japan and into orbit between April 4 and April 8.
  
The United States, South Korea and Japan, however, suspect the planned launch is a disguise for a missile test.
  
Washington and Tokyo have worked jointly on a missile defense shield, using land and sea-based missiles, against a possible attack from North Korea, which fired a missile over Japan in 1998 and tested a nuclear bomb in 2006.
  
Japan's security council will meet this week to prepare for the shooting down of a North Korean rocket if it threatens to hit the country, Prime Minister Taro Aso said Wednesday.
  
North Korea says it would regard a rocket intercept as an act of war.
  
Pyongyang has said that the rocket's first booster will likely plunge into the Sea of Japan (East Sea) off Japan's northern Akita prefecture, while the second will drop into the Pacific between Japan and Hawaii.
  
Newspaper reports in Japan also said the Pyongyang regime had moved the missile into place.
  
The Sankei Shimbun said in an unsourced online report that "North Korea has entered into the final stage of preparing for a launch as it has moved a rocket from storage."
  
The Mainichi Shimbun said in an online report, quoting an unnamed South Korean defense source, that the missile was in place and would in theory be ready for launch as early as Saturday.