WASHINGTON, April 26: A day after accusing North Korea of helping Syria build a covert nuclear reactor, the United States said it did not trust the hardline communist state, which is negotiating to end its atomic weapons drive.

“We are not yet to the trust part, we are still working on the verify part,” State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said on Friday, paraphrasing late president Ronald Reagan’s signature phrase, “trust but verify,” when dealing with relations and agreements with the former Soviet Union during the Cold War.

“Trust is something that is built up over time and is based on performance and adherence to obligations and, we would see, we would see,” McCormack said when asked why Washington would continue to trust North Korea following revelations on Thursday that it helped Syria build an atomic reactor.

Washington charged that the Syrian nuclear facility had a military purpose until Israel destroyed it in a raid in September last year.

The allegation against North Korea came after the reclusive state agreed to come clean on its nuclear weapons programme in six-nation talks launched five years ago aimed at disbanding Pyongyang’s atomic arsenal.

McCormack said North Korea was confronted over the secret Syrian project in the past several months in the context of the six-party talks, involving the United States, China, the two Koreas, Russia and Japan.

He refused to say how Pyongyang responded.

“I’m not going to share every exchange within the context of those discussions, but I would leave it to them and that they’re fully capable of responding in public,” he said.

Under the six-party agreement, North Korea has shut down its key nuclear reactor and is in the process of disabling it in return for energy aid and diplomatic and security guarantees.

Pyongyang has however missed a December 31 deadline to declare its nuclear programme and its past proliferation record, presumably due to complications over its alleged involvement in the Syrian nuclear facility.

McCormack said that US intelligence information about the North Korea-Syria nuclear links had laid down “a very clear line” in terms of what was required of Pyongyang’s declaration.

“So I think they understand very clearly the bar that they need to get over on that part of the declaration,” he said.

Lawmakers were shown pictures of the Syrian nuclear site on Thursday, which some experts view as a move by the Bush administration to eliminate the issue as any point of contention between the United States and North Korea.

“They can effectively argue that ‘we don’t need North Korea to provide a declaration (of its proliferation) because we already know what they have done with Syria and then perhaps it can be deemphasised in the negotiations,” said Jon Wolfsthal, a weapons expert at the Washington-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies.

“This could actually be an attempt by the Bush administration to throw out the garbage because this is an issue that they don’t think can be resolved easily, that they don’t think is as important as other issues.” Intelligence and administration officials told reporters on Thursday that the Syrian nuclear project could have started in 2001, two years before the six-party talks were launched.

The White House said on Friday it hoped the revelations would prompt Pyongyang to be more willing to disclose its atomic and proliferation activities.

“The ball is in their court for the next set,” spokeswoman Dana Perino said.

McCormack also said that the North Korean-Syrian links underscored the importance of verification of nuclear activities within the six-party process, with China taking a lead role in that area.

“And this information has strengthened that case to the point where you have China that is now going to be chairing a group within the six-party mechanism on issues related to verification,” he said.

In an editorial published on Saturday, The New York Times said North Korea’s willingness to sell nuclear technology to Syria was “extremely worrisome.” ”Israel’s attack has at least ensured that the Syrian reactor will not be a threat,” the paper pointed out. “As for Pyongyang’s promises to forsake any future sales, that must be vigilantly monitored and verified along with all of its nuclear activities.”—AFP