Tensions between North Korea and the United States have escalated after the the United States Navy began tracking a North Korean ship suspected of carrying illegal weapons or technology. Media reports from Japan also claim that the North may launch a long range missile toward the U.S. state of Hawaii in July.

The North Korean cargo ship, the Kang Nam, is currently in the Pacific Ocean and is reported to be heading toward Singapore.

North Korea has warned that any effort to stop its ships would be considered an act of war. The U.S. started tracking the ship because an unnamed official alleged that the ship has been known to carry illegal materials in the past. The U.S. says it has no intention of boarding the ship using military force, but would act in accordance with United Nations resolutions, asking the ship's crew for permission to board the vessel. If the ship declines to grant the Navy permission, no military- U.S. or otherwise- has threatened to forcibly board it. However, America's top military officers say the U.S. Navy is prepared to block the ship from reaching its destination.

North Korea has stepped up its defense in response to the conflict. Japanese media outlets are reporting that North Korea may launch a Taepodong-2 missile between July 4 and 8 towards the U.S. state of Hawaii. The missile is said to have a range of no more than 4,000 miles, though the nearest Hawaiian island is 4,500 miles away.

North Korea threatened to fire an intercontinental ballistic missile if the U.N. Security Council did not apologize for punishing it for an April rocket launch, which violated U.N. regulations. Instead, the United Nations followed their tightened sanctions on the country by passing harsh resolutions with overwhelming support.  North Korea responded to the U.N. action by threatening to restart its uranium enrichment program, which could lead to a new atomic bomb and the use of its plutonium stockpile to build an estimated 6 nuclear weapons.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has activated Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) and Sea Based X-Band (SBX) in Hawaii to counter any North Korean missile launched towards Hawaii, even if there is no immediate threat to the state. Gates also noted that anti-air missiles in Alaska were ready to thwart a rocket launch from either the North Korean mainland or North Korean naval waters.

"We do have some concerns if they were to launch a missile to the west in the direction of Hawaii," Gates told reporters. Joint Chiefs of Staff Vice Chairman General James Cartwright says North Korea may be able to hit a major U.S. West coast city in three to five years, but that it would be very unlikely to be a nuclear weapon. North Korea tested a nuclear bomb — its second nuclear test — on May 25.

"The ground-based interceptors are clearly in a position to take action. So, without telegraphing what we will do, I would just say ... I think we are in a good position, should it become necessary, to protect the American territory," added Gates.

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NKorea accuses US of plotting Atomic War

In what would be the first test for the new U.N. sanctions against the North, South Korean media also reported Sunday that a North Korean ship sailing toward Myanmar via Singapore was being shadowed by the U.S. military over suspicion that it may be carrying illicit weapons.

U.S. officials said Thursday that the U.S. military had begun tracking the ship, Kang Nam, which left a North Korean port Wednesday.

South Korean television network YTN, citing an unidentified intelligence source in the South, reported that the U.S. suspected the 2,000-ton-class ship was carrying missiles and other related weapons toward Myanmar — which has faced an arms embargo from the United States and the European Union and has reportedly bought weapons from North Korea.

The report said the U.S. has also deployed a navy destroyer and has been using satellites to track the ship.

South Korea's Defense Ministry, Unification Ministry and the National Intelligence Service said they could not confirm the report.

Tension on the Korean peninsula has spiked since the North defiantly conducted its second nuclear test on May 25. North Korea later declared it would bolster its atomic bomb-making program and threatened war in protest of U.N. sanctions for its test.

Obama reaffirmed Washington's security commitment to South Korea, including through U.S. nuclear protection, after a meeting Tuesday in Washington with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak. Obama also said the U.N. sanctions will be aggressively enforced.

In its first response to the summit, North Korea's government-run weekly Tongil Sinbo said that Obama's comments only revealed a U.S. plot to invade the North with nuclear weapons.

"It's not a coincidence at all for the U.S. to have brought numerous nuclear weapons into South Korea and other adjacent sites, staging various massive war drills opposing North Korea every day and watching for a chance for an invasion," said the commentary published Saturday.

The weekly also said the North will also "surely judge" the Lee government for participating in a U.S.-led international campaign to "stifle" the North.

North Korea says its nuclear program is a deterrent against the U.S., which it routinely accuses of plotting to topple its communist regime. Washington, which has 28,500 troops in South Korea, has repeatedly said it has no such intention and has no nuclear weapons deployed there.

On Saturday, a South Korean Foreign Ministry official said Seoul has proposed five-way talks with the U.S., China, Russia and Japan to find a new way to deal with the North's threats.

The U.S. and Japan have agreed to participate, while China and Russia have yet to respond, the official told The Associated Press, requesting anonymity because he was discussing a plan still in the works.

North Korea and the five countries began negotiating under the so-called "six-party talks" in 2003 with the aim of giving the communist regime economic aid and other concessions in exchange for dismantling its nuclear program. In April, however, the North said it was pulling out of the talks in response to international criticism of its controversial April 5 long-range rocket launch.

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Associated Press Kwang-tae Kim contributed to this report.