North Korea's leader Kim Jong-Il vowed his country would continue to sell missiles and technology abroad despite his commitment to a test moratorium, a senior EU official said yesterday.

South Korea's President Kim Dae-Jung said however that the landmark EU mission to Pyongyang this week would still help to thaw the frozen dialogue between the communist North and the United States.

Kim Jong-Il said the sales of missiles and weapon technology was "part of trade," according to EU foreign and security policy chief, Javier Solana, who was part of the delegation that travelled to the communist country this week.

Kim promised to keep a 1999 moratorium on missile tests until at least 2003 during talks Thursday with the EU mission led by Prime Minister Goeran Persson of Sweden.

"On the export of technology, the answer was much more negative," Solana told a news conference in Seoul. And accusations of state-sponsored terrorism have kept North Korea on the US list of rogue states.