SINGAPORE, Aug 15: Diplomacy will remain the most important means of convincing North Korea and Iran to give up their nuclear programmes, a senior US official said here on Monday.

Robert Joseph, the undersecretary for arms control and international security, said there was no subsitute for diplomacy despite other efforts like the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) to stop what he called rogue states and terrorists from getting weapons of mass destruction.

“I think diplomacy is always going to be important whether it’s in the context of North Korea or Iran ...” Joseph said.

He said moves outlined by the US to contain WMD trade “whether they be PSI or they be defensive measures, are not a subsitute for diplomacy.”

“So we do diplomacy and we do the other activities that I have described,” Roberts said.

On North Korea, Joseph said: “We continue to approach diplomacy through the six-party talks, the six party framework... and we continue to encourage North Korea to abandon all of its nuclear weapons programme and all of its nuclear programs given that all of those programmes are nuclear weapons-related.”

The United States, along with Beijing, Russia, Japan, and the two Koreas are involved in the six-party talks aimed at getting Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear programme in exchange for diplomatic and economic benefits and security guarantees.

Washington has toughened its rhetoric against Iran with President George W. Bush refusing to rule out the use of military force to get Tehran to give up its nuclear weapons programme.

The PSI was launched by US President George W. Bush in 2003 to curb the trade in weapons of mass destruction. A five-day drill to enhance cooperation among participants in the PSI initiative began in Southeast Asia on Monday.—AFP