A U.S. think tank said Friday the United States plans to deploy missiles to South Korea in 2005 with the aim of destroying North Korea's underground facilities for weapons of mass destruction.

The Center for American Progress said in a report carried on its Internet website (http://www.americanprogress.org/) that North Korea is suspected of possessing at least one atomic bomb and has enough nuclear fuel to produce up to nine more bombs.

The report said the move to deploy missiles to the South will make negotiations with the North increasingly difficult as threatened states tend to accelerate efforts to develop such weapons of mass destruction.

The report also said the United States has recently withdrawn its earlier assertions that it would not negotiate with North Korea until the communist regime abandons its nuclear program, apparently under pressure from China and South Korea.