'Sure' China is assisting North Korean missile programme: Panetta
US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta is "sure" about Chinese help to North Korea's missile programme despite a UN ban on such an activity.
"I'm sure there's been some help coming from China. I don't know, you know, the exact extent of that," Panetta is reported to have told members of the House Armed Services Committee Thursday.
He was asked if China was supporting North Korea's missile programme through "trade and technology exchanges".
The revelation comes almost a week after North Korea's failed rocket launch invited global condemnation.
A report in Jane's Defence Weekly early this week claimed that a vehicle has been spotted in a North Korean military parade, suggesting the design or technology of the missile launch transporter may have come from China. Beijing has denied having broken any international law.
UN Security Council resolutions from 2006 and 2009 state that helping North Korea with its missile programme, its nuclear activities and supplying heavy weapons is strictly prohibited.
State Department spokesperson Mark Toner said Thursday that Washington was not aware of any evidence that China violated the U.N. arms embargo.
About North Korea's capability to develop long-range missile and nuclear weapons, Panetta said there was "no question" that such efforts posed threat to the US.
"For that reason we take North Korea and their provocative actions very seriously... And China ought to be urging them to engage in those kinds of ... diplomatic negotiations. We thought we were making some progress and suddenly we're back at provocation," he said, referring to the failed rocket launch that almost thwarted attempts to end US embargoes against Pyongyang.
Source: United States News.Net
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