NEW YORK: While the focus is on the war in Iraq, concern over North Korea’s nuclear programme is simmering in the United Nations Security Council with major powers as divided as they were on the Iraq issue, a Western diplomat said on Monday.

The diplomat said that the United States has relied on the council as a multilateral forum to deal with the Pyongyang government. Washington can also deal with North Korea on a one-to-one basis, but it needs the UN on this issue, the diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

He said that if Pyongyang has indeed resumed reprocessing plutonium to build nuclear weapons, the council would have to take “strong measures”, including imposing sanctions.

“I don’t know how you can avoid that,” the diplomat said.

The council’s 15 members last month asked their legal and weapons experts to study the North Korea nuclear programme after the International Atomic Energy Agency recommended that the body assume responsibility because it is an issue of peace and security.

But the panel of experts have not come up with any recommendations, because China and Russia are opposed to UN involvement. Those two countries have urged Washington to hold direct negotiations with Pyongyang to resolve the problem.

France, while opposing the US-led war in Iraq, is in close cooperation with the US on ways to deal with North Korea, the diplomat said.

The Bush administration, busy with the war in Iraq, has so far avoided making promises to enter into negotiations with the North Koreans and would need the UN Security Council as a “cover”, the diplomat said.

It is not ruled out that Washington can talk directly with the North Koreans under a UN umbrella, the diplomat said.

The diplomat said that the war in Iraq would have an effect on how the international community would deal later with issues of nuclear non-proliferation, including those in North Korea.—dpa