Feb. 4 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. warned North Korea that test-firing a missile would be viewed as “provocative” after reports the communist state was preparing a rocket launch days after declaring the Korean peninsula was on the brink of war.

“North Korea’s missile activities and, you know, its missile programs are of concern to the region,” State Department spokesman Robert Wood told reporters in Washington yesterday. “A ballistic missile launch by North Korea would be unhelpful and, frankly, provocative.”

U.S. and South Korean intelligence agencies believe North Korea may be preparing to test an intercontinental ballistic missile, Yonhap News said yesterday, citing an unidentified South Korean security official.

Kim Jong Il’s regime announced Jan. 30 it was scrapping all military and political agreements with South Korea, accusing the government in Seoul of pursuing confrontational policies that were pushing the nations toward conflict. Analysts said North Korea’s rhetoric may have been aimed at drawing the attention of the new Obama administration in Washington.

North Korea, which tested a nuclear weapon in 2006, has rejected international demands that inspectors be allowed to remove samples from its Yongbyon reactor, the source of the regime’s weapons-grade plutonium. The refusal has stalled six- nation disarmament talks that also involve the U.S., China, South Korea, Japan and Russia.

Taepodong-2 Missile

U.S. and South Korean intelligence agencies recently observed a train carrying a long cylinder-shaped object believed to be a Taepodong-2 missile, Seoul-based Yonhap reported. The launch preparations are likely to be completed in a month or two, the news agency cited the intelligence official as saying.

The rocket is technically capable of hitting the U.S. North Korea launched a Taepodong-1 rocket over Japan in 1998 and, during military exercises in 2006, fired a Taepodong-2 missile that failed about 40 seconds into flight.

Kim’s regime has repeatedly called South Korean President Lee Myung Bak, who took office a year ago, a “traitor” and a “sycophant to the U.S.”

South Korea last month welcomed comments from Kim that he is committed to scrapping North Korea’s nuclear program and will continue efforts toward a peaceful resolution.

Kim told a Chinese Communist Party official at a Jan. 23 meeting in Pyongyang that North Korea “is committed to making the Korean peninsula a nuclear-free zone and wishes to live in peace with all the parties concerned,” China’s official Xinhua news agency reported at the time.

To contact the reporter on this story: Michael Heath in Sydney at mheath1@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: February 3, 2009 18:46 EST