North Korea moved long-range anti-aircraft missiles close to the border with South Korea as tensions rose over the sinking of one of Seoul's warships, a newspaper reported Wednesday.

Chosun Ilbo quoted a military source as saying the North moved some SA-5 missiles from the southwestern province of Hwanghae to areas near the border, where they pose a potential threat to South Korean jets.

The missiles were repositioned around the time when the corvette sank in March, it said. A Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesman declined to comment on what he called military intelligence matters.

The aim seems to be to prevent South Korean planes from launching precision strikes on strategic targets in the North in any emergency, the source told the paper.

"When SA-5 tracer radar is activated, our fighters have to fly low to avoid detection. Their activities are consequently somewhat restricted," the source was quoted as saying.

With a range of 250 kilometres (150 miles), the missiles are a potential threat not only to South Korean aircraft operating near the border but those as far south as the central province of Chungcheong, the paper said.

The North reportedly purchased about 350 SA-5 missiles and 20 launch pads from the Soviet Union in the late 1980s.

Military tensions have risen since South Korea and the United States accused the North of torpedoing the warship, a charge it denies.

The South is Thursday starting a five-day anti-submarine drill in the Yellow Sea. The North has threatened "strong physical retaliation" for the exercise.

earlier related report
S.Korea warns N.Korea on eve of naval drill
Seoul (AFP) Aug 4, 2010 - South Korea warned North Korea Wednesday it would not tolerate provocations during an upcoming naval exercise in the Yellow Sea, after Pyongyang threatened "strong physical retaliation" for the drill.

"Our military will keep a close eye on our enemy, be ready under any circumstances during the training and will not tolerate any type of provocation," Rear Admiral Kim Kyung-Sik told a briefing.

A spokesman for the Joint Chiefs of Staff told AFP separately that if the North fired at the South, "we will stage an immediate counter-attack".

The five-day anti-submarine drill starting Thursday is a response to the North's alleged torpedo attack in March on a South Korean warship which killed 46 sailors.

Military officials said 29 ships, 50 fixed-wing aircraft and 4,500 army, navy, air force, marine and coastguard personnel would take part.

They said marines stationed on islands near the disputed Yellow Sea border with the North would stage live-fire exercises, but naval ships would stay far south of the line.

Kim said the exercise would be a legitimate defensive drill in the South's waters aimed at warning the North against future provocations.

In a joint show of strength on the eastern side of the Korean peninsula, the US and South Korean military last week staged one of their largest joint naval and air drills.

The allies plan more joint drills this year but this week's exercise will involve only South Korea.

The United States has also announced new sanctions on the North to punish it for the alleged attack on the South Korean warship, the Cheonan, and to push it to scrap its nuclear weapons programme.

The North vehemently denies it attacked the Cheonan. It also disputes the maritime border in the Yellow Sea, which was the scene of several naval clashes in the past, saying it should run further to the south.

The Cheonan went down near the border and a multinational investigation concluded it had been torpedoed by one of the North's submarines.

The North's military Tuesday dubbed the upcoming exercise a "direct military invasion". It said "reckless naval firing" by the South would be countered "with strong physical retaliation".

Pyongyang threatened nuclear retaliation for last week's joint drill, which ended without incident.

A South Korean newspaper said Wednesday the North had moved long-range anti-aircraft missiles close to the border as tensions rose over the warship.

Chosun Ilbo quoted a military source as saying some SA-5 missiles had been moved to areas near the border, where they pose a potential threat to South Korean jets.

A separate media report said the United States, as part of its new sanctions, is expected to blacklist three key North Korean figures suspected of handling secret funds for leader Kim Jong-Il.

Yonhap news agency, quoting a South Korean government source, said one of the three is Kim Tong-Myong, head of the North's Tanchon Commercial Bank.

"The US is paying special attention to three people, including Kim Tong-Myong, who operate North Korea's secret funds abroad," the source was quoted as saying.

"If they are included in the new sanctions, it could deal a blow to North Korea's leadership."

The North has indicated conditional willingness to return to six-party nuclear disarmament talks after the UN Security Council failed directly to censure it for the Cheonan incident.

But senior US State Department Robert Einhorn said he was unsure whether Pyongyang was ready to resume negotiations, given its recent behaviour.

"North Korea's actions raised legitimate questions in the minds of people about whether they are actually prepared to live up to their obligations to disarm completely, verifiable and irreversibly," he said in Tokyo.

"If the North Koreans are sincere... they have to take convincing tangible steps," said Einhorn, who visited South Korea and Japan to co-ordinate enforcement of sanctions on North Korea and Iran.