The United States is beefing up defensive measures and readying sanction against North Korea in response to its nuclear test but is willing to resolve differences with Pyongyang through diplomacy, the US envoy for North Korea said today.
"Our strong preference is to engage in serious, effective diplomacy," ambassador Stephen Bosworth told the Senate foreign relations committee.
Mr Bosworth tonight said putting North Korea back on the US list of state sponsors of terrorism would do little to penalise Pyongyang because most of the related sanctions are already applied under other US laws.
"I would note that a redesignation of North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism would not result in any new material penalty to the North Koreans since many of the activities that we are talking about are covered under other sanctions applied to North Korea under other provisions of US law," Mr Bosworth said.
He also told lawmakers the United States has seen no formal designation of a successor to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.
Seperately, the head of the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency said today that Iran and North Korea are working together to develop ballistic missiles and have made significant progress.
"It really is an international effort going on out there to develop ballistic missile capability between these countries," Army Lieutenant General Patrick O'Reilly told a forum on Capitol Hill.
Iran and North Korea each is at odds with much of the international community over their nuclear programs, and North Korea has tested an atomic bomb. Each has demonstrated a capability to launch missiles with more than one stage, critical to more advanced systems.
Mr O'Reilly said the two nations were sharing know-how on avionics, propulsion and materials, among other things.
"We've seen it for years and it continues," he said of such cooperation between North Korea and Iran, whose Shahab missiles are widely reported to be based on North Korean designs.
Their ability to fire missiles with a stable ignition and launch a second stage represents "a significant step forward" for both of them, he said.
Asked which country was further ahead in missile development, he said it could be described as a "horse race" with no clear leader.
Other experts said Iran had demonstrated greater expertise with test-firing of a solid-fuel rocket with a stated range of some 1,900km enough to reach Israel, US bases in the Gulf or southeastern Europe.
UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon said today it was important for the Security Council to take a unified position on North Korea's nuclear program, which he said had global implications.
Key powers agreed a draft UN resolution today, ending weeks of wrangling on a plan to expand sanctions against North Korea for its recent nuclear test. The Security Council may pass it as soon as tomorrow.
"The Security Council seems to be ready to take action on the DPRK's nuclear test," Mr Ban told a news conference, using the acronym for the North's full name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
Mr Ban, a former foreign minister of South Korea, said he had consistently argued that "the security council should take a unified position on this issue."
"Once (a) Security Council resolution is adopted, it is again very important for all the members of the United Nations including DPRK to fully comply with and cooperate with this resolution," he said at his regular monthly briefing.
The agreement ended more than two weeks of closed-door negotiations that pitted five powers demanding tough sanctions against Pyongyang for its May nuclear test - United States, Britain, France, Japan and South Korea - against Russia and China, which argued against harsh penalties for North Korea.
The end result, Western diplomats said, was a watered-down version of an initially tough draft resolution that now represents a moderate expansion of the sanctions imposed on Pyongyang after its first nuclear test in October 2006.
Diplomats from the 15 council members were holding technical discussions of the draft text today and it might come to a vote on Friday, a Western diplomat said.
With the five veto-holding powers backing the resolution, there should be no hurdle to its passing, but some diplomats have said Security Council members Vietnam and Libya might not back sanctions.
Reuters