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US fears N Korea-Syria nuke link
16/09/2007 16:54 - (SA)
Washington - The United States would have a "real problem" if Syria and North Korea are collaborating on a nuclear programme, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said on Sunday.
Gates refused to confirm the veracity of leaked intelligence reports suggesting that North Korea may be helping Syria build a nuclear weapons facility.
"But all I will say is we are watching the North Koreans very carefully. We watch the Syrians very carefully," he said on Fox News.
"If such an activity were taking place, it would be a matter of great concern because the president has put down a very strong marker with the North Koreans about further proliferation efforts and obviously any effort by the Syrians to pursue weapons of mass destruction would be a concern.
"I think it would be a real problem," Gates said.
A senior North Korean diplomat has dismissed the media reports that the Stalinist state may be helping Syria on the nuclear front, South Korea's Yonhap news agency said Sunday.
"They often say things that are groundless," Kim Myong-Gil, the North's deputy UN mission chief, told Yonhap in the first official response to last week's reports about alleged co-operation between Pyongyang and Damascus.
- AFP
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