"There is a good possibility North Korea may stage a provocative act in some areas after international attention is focused on its missile launch," the ministry said in a report to a parliamentary committee on inter-Korean relations.

The North has said it will launch what it calls a communications satellite sometime between April 4-8. Seoul and Washington say the launch is a pretext to test its longest range missile, which could theoretically hit Alaska.

Any such provocation would aim to foster conflict between different factions in the South, the ministry report said.

"It appears the North is trying to incite internal conflict in the South while pressuring the United States' Obama administration to come to bilateral talks at an early date," it said.

The ministry said the North may fire short-range missiles near the disputed maritime border in the Yellow Sea or stage limited provocations within the Demilitarised Zone which splits the peninsula.

The sea border was the scene of deadly naval battles in 1999 and 2002. Seoul's forces have already been put on alert following worsening cross-border relations.

The North is angry at President Lee Myung-Bak's government, which has taken a tougher stance on cross-border relations. He links major economic aid to the North's progress on denuclearisation, a stance that enrages Pyongyang.

In late January the North announced it was scrapping all peace accords with the South, including one which recognised the disputed sea border as an interim frontier.

earlier related report
NKorea refuses US food amid missile standoff
Chronically hungry North Korea has refused further US food aid, the State Department and relief groups said Tuesday, ramping up a showdown over the communist state's missile drive.

North Korea slammed the door as it prepares to launch what it calls a satellite next month. The United States and its allies consider it a missile and a top general pledged Tuesday to defend US soil.

North Korea, where hundreds of thousands died in famine in the 1990s, "has informed the United States that it does not wish to receive additional US food assistance at this time," State Department spokesman Robert Wood said.

"We are obviously disappointed," Wood told reporters. "Clearly this is food assistance that the North Korean people need. That's why we are concerned."

Five US non-governmental organizations said their joint 16-member team, which had a mandate to be in North Korea through May, would be leaving by the end of the month after distributing about half the food they intended.

"They didn't give any reason that we know of," Mercy Corps spokeswoman Joy Portella said. "We had been very happy with the program and are certainly very disappointed."

In Seoul, Unification Minister Hyun In-Taek suspected North Korea did not want to be seen as dependent on the United States, which it accuses of preparing an invasion through an ongoing joint military drill with South Korea.

He also noted the pressure from Seoul, Washington and Tokyo on North Korea to call off the "satellite" launch, which the United States calls a guise to test a long-range ballistic missile that could, in theory, reach Alaska.

"I believe the North's rejection is an answer to the international situation it is now in," Hyun told reporters.

The United Nations said Monday that 6.9 million North Koreans have not received food aid they desperately need.

The United States in June last year reached the deal to provide 500,000 metric tonnes of food aid to North Korea but insisted on supervision, fearing that much of it was going to the elite.

"There's now going to be more hunger in North Korea, but we've seen before that this is a regime that is not overly concerned about starving its own people," said Peter Beck, a Korea expert at American University.

"It's more important for them to show who's boss," he said.

Beck said North Korea may calculate it had a better than expected harvest or that China, its closest ally, would replace the aid from the United States and South Korea, whose relations with Pyongyang have been deteriorating.

North Korea, which prides itself on self-reliance, has announced it will launch the communications satellite between April 4-8 and said any attempt to shoot it down would be an act of war.

A US general told a congressional hearing that the military was ready to defend the United States, but regarded North Korea as "a very limited threat."

"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," said Air Force General Victor 'Gene' Renuart, head of US Northern Command.

Kim Jong-Il's regime fired a long-range missile over Japan into the Pacific in 1998 in what it called a satellite launch.

It tested its updated Taepodong-2 missile in 2006, but it failed after 40 seconds. Three months later, it staged an underground nuclear weapons test.

The United States later entered a six-nation deal with North Korea to end its nuclear drive in return for badly needed fuel aid and security guarantees.

But then president George W. Bush's administration said in December that fuel shipments were being suspended due to the lack of progress in finding a way for North Korea to verify its nuclear disarmament.

The United States agreed to provide the food as a separate humanitarian gesture in the June deal -- 400,000 through the UN World Food Program and the rest through the NGOs.

The NGOs focused on reaching the most vulnerable, including children, pregnant women and nursing mothers. It had brought in 71,000 tonnes and distributed 50,000 so far, Mercy Corps said.

Aid workers still see "rampant malnutrition" in North Korea, said Portella, the spokeswoman.

"It's not the kind of thing you solve in nine months," she said.

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