South Korea's Unification Minister Lee Jong-seok said Thursday it was still unclear whether the North would test-fire a missile but that the "government is getting ready for all possibilities," according to his aide Kim Sung-bae.

Amid the tension, foreign businessmen toured a joint industrial zone in North Korea that is a centerpiece of reconciliation efforts between the two Koreas. North Korean officials sent to act as interpreters and guides for the visitors to Kaesong, just north of the heavily armed inter-Korean border, parried queries about the missile issue.

"We are a peaceful country," Chang Mi Son, wearing a white dress with a badge depicting North Korea's founding ruler Kim Il Sung, said in fluent English.

Meanwhile, about 1,000 people including army veterans and activists staged an anti-North Korea rally in Seoul, condemning the North's missile threat and denouncing now-canceled plans by former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung to visit Pyongyang.

Some activists set a North Korean flag on fire and displayed several replicas of a North Korean missile, including one with crossed-out photos of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and the country's flag.