UNITED NATIONS, Feb 23: China on Wednesday refused to let the UN Security Council publish a report on North Korea's nuclear sanctions busting, diplomats said.

The sanctions panel report calls for tougher implementation of sanctions against North Korea and outlines progress the isolated Stalinist state has made with its uranium enrichment, according to diplomats.

The report says the uranium enrichment is a new violation of UN sanctions imposed after North Korea said it staged nuclear bomb tests in 2006 and 2009.

The 15-nation Security Council on Wednesday discussed the North Korea nuclear case at a closed hearing but China again refused to allow the normal publication of such reports, diplomats said.

“Many council members are pushing for its publication on the grounds that it is important that all UN member states get access to the findings and recommendations to improve compliance,” said one diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity.

He said just one country was blocking publication and other diplomats confirmed that it was China blocking the release.

China is the North's closest ally and has sought to protect the Pyongyang regime on the international stage while seeking to restart six nation talks on the nuclear program.

Diplomats said that China's action was strange as a Chinese expert, Xue Xiaodong, has signed off on the report.

The report says North Korea has at least one secret nuclear military site, and that subterfuge work was probably started in the 1990s without raising suspicions, according to diplomats who have seen the document.

It is based on evidence from US scientist Siegfried Hecker, who was taken to a secret site by the North Korean authorities last November.

Hecker has told of seeing hundreds of centrifuges when he went to the Yongbyon nuclear complex. The report quoted him as saying North Korea must have had foreign help to build the facility, one diplomat said.

The United States and other western nations among the Security Council's 15 members have called for tougher sanctions on Pyongyang.—AFP