Israel: North Korea adds to Mideast proliferation

Israel hit out at North Korea as a "dangerous and threatening" proliferator on Saturday as the UN nuclear watchdog's 145 member nations urged Pyongyang to resume nuclear disablement..

Addressing the International Atomic Energy Agency's general conference, the deputy chief of Israel's Atomic Energy Commission, David Danieli, said Pyongyang had "long become a source of dangerous and threatening proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles in the Middle East."

Israel accused North Korea of supplying at least half a dozen Mideast countries with conventional arms or nuclear technology. "At least half a dozen" countries in the Middle East "have become eager recipients ... mostly through black-market and covert networks and channels," Danieli told the assembly on the last day of its week-long meeting.

"No due attention is paid to this dark aspect ... which has become a matter of great concern to my government and others."

'Others copying Pyongyang'

Iran, Syria and Libya have been thought to be receiving North Korean military or nuclear help. But the Israeli comments suggest that other Mideast nations that have not been identified as potential proliferation concerns are also North Korean customers.

North Korea itself received its nuclear know-how via the black market network of disgraced Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan.

Danieli said many Middle Eastern countries were copying North Korea's "dangerous practices," while speaking during a debate on a new IAEA resolution on North Korea.

The IAEA's top policy-making body adopted by consensus a resolution stressing the "desire for a diplomatic resolution of the DPRK nuclear issue which achieves the verifiable denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula."

Earlier this month, IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei said North Korea had expelled his agency's inspectors from the reprocessing plant at its sprawling nuclear facility in Yongbyon and was preparing to restart the plant, which is used to make weapons-grade material.

Addressing Saturday's meeting, the South Korean delegate said that his government "regrets and notes with serious concern" the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's decision to suspend disablement.

AFP and the Associated Press contributed to this report