North Korea must abandon nuclear, missile programmes - U.S.

GENEVA (Reuters) - A senior U.S. arms control official said on Tuesday that the only way for North Korea to achieve security and development is to abandon all of its weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programmes.

Yleem Poblete, Assistant Secretary of State for Arms Control, Verification and Compliance, urged countries to halt any weapons or military cooperation with North Korea. "You are violating U.N. Security Council resolutions that explicitly prohibit such transfers," she said.

There was no immediate reaction from North Korea's delegation at the United Nations-sponsored Conference on Disarmament.

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Catherine Evans)