Premier Taro Aso's cabinet "is earnestly considering" the move but has yet to make any final decision ahead of the communist North's scheduled April 4-8 rocket launch, said chief government spokesman Takeo Kawamura.

"We have to make an effort to secure the peace and safety of our people and assuage their concerns," he told reporters.

Pyongyang has said it will launch what it calls a communications satellite, but Washington and Seoul say the real aim is to test a long-range Taepodong-2, the regime's first missile theoretically capable of reaching Alaska.

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.

Pyongyang, in response, has said it would regard interception as an act of war.

Japan's Kyodo News, quoting unnamed sources, reported that the cabinet may instruct Defence Minister Yasukazu Hamada to order interceptor missiles to be deployed underneath the rocket's announced trajectory.

Japan could position Patriot Advanced Capability-3 interceptors in northern Akita and Iwate prefectures, Kyodo reported.

It could also deploy two Aegis-equipped destroyers with Standard Missile-3 ballistic missile interceptors -- one to the Sea of Japan and the other to the Pacific Ocean -- in coordination with the US military, Kyodo added.

The government of Aso's Liberal Democratic Party and its junior coalition partner New Komeito has meanwhile agreed to set up a task force to address the launch issue.

New Komeito leader Akihiro Ota said that "based on the Self-Defence Forces Law, we should destroy a falling object, even if it is not a ballistic missile but anything that possibly has lost control due to to an accident."

"We need to have a variety of preparations, including the (deployment of) Aegis-equipped destroyers," he told reporters.

earlier related report
China PM talks nuclear with NKorea premier
The prime ministers of China and North Korea Wednesday discussed the nuclear situation on the Korean peninsula as they met amid rising tensions over Pyongyang's atomic and missile programmes.

"China is willing to actively push forward the six-party talks and continue to play a constructive role in realising the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula," China's Wen Jiabao told Kim Yong-Il in talks broadcast on state television.

Kim's visit comes amid mounting international concern over North Korea's planned launch early next month of a communications satellite, which the United States and South Korea have said is more likely a test of a ballistic missile.

Adding to tensions, six-nation talks aimed at ending Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programmes have stalled since December.

China has expressed concern over the situation on the Korean peninsula.

"At present, the situation on the Korean peninsula is rather complicated with an increasing number of uncertain factors," foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters Tuesday.

"We express concern over this."

In Washington, also on Tuesday, a US general warned that the United States would have no trouble shooting down the North Korean rocket if it considered it to be a ballistic missile fired at America.

"If we felt the North Koreans were going to shoot a ballistic missile at us today, I am comfortable that we would have an effective system that would meet that need," Air Force General Victor "Gene" Renuart told a congressional hearing.

Washington says Pyongyang is testing a missile that could, in theory, reach Alaska.

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

China, meanwhile, has called on all sides to exercise restraint and return to the six-nation nuclear negotiations, which also group the United States, North and South Korea, Japan and Russia.

The Asian giant is regarded as having influence on North Korea because it is one of the secretive nation's closest allies and most important trading partners, as well as being chair of the nuclear talks.

Under a landmark deal reached during six-party negotiations in 2007, the North agreed to dismantle its nuclear programmes in exchange for badly needed energy aid and diplomatic concessions.

But the talks broke down in December amid disagreement on how nuclear disarmament would be verified.

The negotiations had previously failed to stop North Korea from conducting its first atomic weapons test in October 2006.

Wen told Kim -- who is on a five-day visit that both sides have promoted as part of celebrations for the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations -- that China was willing to strengthen communication between the two nations.

"China is willing to strengthen communication and coordination between the two sides on major international and local issues," he said, according to state television CCTV.

Kim, on his part, told the Chinese premier that North Korea was also willing to strengthen friendly cooperation, CCTV reported.

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Arlington, Va. (UPI) Feb 2, 2009
In 1998 a U.S. presidential commission warned that the nuclear threat from "rogue states" such as North Korea was growing rapidly. In response, the Clinton administration proposed a $60 billion plan to build radars and interceptor missiles that could defend all 50 states against a limited nuclear attack.