U.S. reviewing U.N. report on N. Korea's missile proliferation to Iran: State Dept.

By Hwang Doo-hyong WASHINGTON, May 16 (Yonhap) -- The United States said Monday it is studying a U.N. report alleging that North Korea has continued proliferating missiles and their parts to Iran and other Middle Eastern countries in violation of international sanctions. "We're looking at the report and we're studying it," State Department spokesman Mark Toner told a daily press briefing. "We've raised these concerns in the past and we'll continue to do so." A U.N. panel reviewing sanctions on North Korea has prepared a report that says Pyongyang has been violating the U.N. Security Council resolutions banning development and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction by continuing to provide missile, parts and expertise to Iran and other countries. The resolutions were adopted after North Korea tested nuclear bombs and test-launched ballistic missiles in 2006 and 2009. The report may not be officially released as China, North Korea's staunchest communist ally, has not yet endorsed it. All of the 15 Security Council members need to sign it before being released. China is one of veto-wielding five permanent members of the council. International talks on North Korea's nuclear dismantlement have been in limbo for more than two years over the sanctions for the North's nuclear and missile tests, and Pyongyang's shelling of a South Korean border island and torpedoing of a South Korean warship that killed 50 people last year. Stephen Bosworth, U.S. special representative for North Korea policy, is currently in Seoul to discuss ways to revive the six-party talks, held last in December 2009. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton discussed North Korea "at length" during the annual high-level Sino-U.S. dialogue in Washington last week, focusing on "working with China to prevent further provocation and nuclear weapon development in North Korea." In an incremental approach toward the nuclear talks' resumption, chief nuclear envoys of South Korea and China last month got together and called on North Korea to have a bilateral nuclear dialogue with South Korea and then another bilateral discussion with the U.S. ahead of any plenary session of the six-party talks. The North has not yet responded to the proposal. North Korea has instead appealed for the U.S. to resume food aid, suspended two years ago over a lack of transparency in the distribution and the mounting tensions after the North's nuclear and missile tests.