North Korean preparations for a possible launch of a intercontinental ballistic missile have raised alarms that Kim Jong-Il, the North Korean leader, is trying to provoke a diplomatic crisis.

Pyongyang stunned Japan and the US in 1998 when it fired an intermediate range Taepodong-1 missile over Japan. US satellite imagery shows the Stalinist nation is now preparing to launch a Taepodong-2 missile, which by some estimates could reach most of the US.