North Korea appeared close Sunday to test-firing a long-range missile capable of reaching the United States, prompting the White House to warn of an appropriate response and Japan to threaten a "fierce" protest to the United Nations.

North Korea was silent on the issue but vowed to bolster its "military deterrent", reported the country's state news agency.

In this satellite image released by GeoEye, the Taepodong missile launch complex in North Korea, called Musudan-ri, is shown in 2001. North Korea said Sunday, June 18, 2006, it is seeking to increase its military deterrent to cope with US moves in a restatement of its typical anti-Washington propaganda, amid increasing signs that the country is preparing for a missile test. [AP]

A test launch of what is believed to be a Taepodong-2 missile would inflame a region already tense over the North's continuing nuclear weapons program.

"There are signs" of an imminent missile launch, Jung Tae-ho, a spokesman at the South Korean president's office, told The Associated Press. He added that security officials were "closely watching the situation."

The North last conducted such a launch in August 1998. Pyongyang imposed a moratorium on testing long-range missiles in 1999.

The White House spokesman said Sunday the United States expected the North to abide by that freeze.

"We do not want to have a missile test out of North Korea," Tony Snow told "Fox News Sunday." "The North Koreans themselves decided in 1999 that they would place a moratorium on this kind of testing, and we expect them to maintain the moratorium."

Snow noted that North Korea made a series of commitments in six-nation talks over its nuclear program in September, including that they would "bargain in good faith."

"We expect them to come back to the table," Snow said. "And we hope there's not going to be a launch."

US President Bush, national security adviser Stephen Hadley and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have been in contact with more than a dozen countries and communicated with North Korea through the UN representative, Snow said.

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