TOKYO - Japanese police said Tuesday they had arrested three men for allegedly trying to sell a device to Myanmar that can be used in missile production - on the orders of a company linked to North Korea.

The men, all Tokyo-based company executives, were arrested Monday on charges of trying to export a magnetic measuring device to the military-ruled Southeast Asian country in violation of an export ban, a police official said.

The men arrested were Lee Kyong-Ho, the 41-year-old president of a trading firm, Yasuhiko Muto, 57, who is also the president of a trading house and Miaki Katsuki, 75, president of a machinery manufacturing company.

"They allegedly tried to export it to Myanmar via Malaysia but failed," a police official, who asked not to be named, told AFP.

"The order was originally made by a North Korean trading firm."

The Yomiuri daily reported that the device can be used to develop missile technologies including ballistic missile navigation.

The report said police first suspected North Korea had tried to import the device via Myanmar, but now believed Pyongyang was trying to transfer missile technologies to the country formerly known as Burma.

Lee's trading house had last year also tried and failed to export to Myanmar a measuring instrument that can be used to produce missiles, it said.

The newspaper report said both illegal export attempts to Myanmar were based on an order by the Beijing office of Hong Kong-based New East International Trading Ltd., which was believed to be under the control of the Second Economic Committee of Pyongyang's Workers' Party of Korea.

Myanmar and hardline communist North Korea, both of which are often severely criticised internationally for their human rights abuses, restored diplomatic relations in 2007 after a 24-year rift.

US officials said earlier in June that a US Navy destroyer was tracking a North Korean ship, the Kang Nam 1, which was believed to be headed for Myanmar, possibly carrying a cargo of weapons.

Myanmar's junta downplayed the reports, saying it expected another vessel from the communist state that contained a shipment of rice.