Medvedev: North Korea's nuclear ambitions greater threat than Iran

A UN report, which alleges that North Korea may have supplied nuclear technology to Syria, Iran and Myanmar, may be submitted before the Security Council after being blocked by China for the past six months. China has lifted its hold on the report two days ahead of President Barack Obama's meeting with China's President Hu Jintao at the G20 meeting in Seoul.

The 75-page report, “reinforces US claims that North Korea has emerged as a key supplier of banned weapons materials to Washington's greatest rivals,” The Washington Post reported.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, also in Seoul, classified North Korea's nuclear ambitions as a greater threat than that of Iran, which has been of late the main focus of the West. Responding to a question about the North Korean nuclear issue, he said Moscow is concerned at the military and political tension that Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions are causing so close to Russia's eastern borders.

“Iran has been the main focus of attention, but I want to point out that Teheran, unlike Pyongyang, has not proclaimed itself a nuclear state, and has not tested nuclear weapons, and all the more so has not threatened to use them,” he said.

[Press Trust of India]