United Nations officials are investigating allegations that China supplied technology for a North Korean missile launcher in a possible breach of UN sanctions, a leading defence journal said Thursday.

IHS Jane's Defence Weekly quoted a senior official close to a United Nations Security Council sanctions committee as saying that an associated panel of experts was "aware of the situation and will pursue enquiries".

The committee is tasked with monitoring breaches of sanctions against the North's missile and nuclear programmes. It is advised by the expert panel.

The 16-wheel launcher, carrying an apparently new medium-range missile, was on show Sunday at a big military parade in Pyongyang to mark the centenary of the birth of the North's founder Kim Il-Sung.

IHS Janes's reported earlier that China appeared to have supplied either the design or the actual vehicle to the North.

It said the transporter-erector-launcher (TEL) is apparently based on a design from the 9th Academy of the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation.

Depending on when the vehicle -- or its design -- was passed to the North, China could be in breach of UN sanctions imposed after the North's long-range missile tests in 2006 and 2009.

The unidentified official quoted by IHS Jane's hinted that political pressure not to implicate China in sanctions infringements may limit room for manoeuvre.

The defence publication in a statement quoted other military analysts as saying the missile launcher was of Chinese origin.

"There is no doubt it came from China, (but) whether it was produced as a licensed or unlicensed vehicle is an open question," Nick Hansen of Stanford University's Center for International Security and Cooperation was quoted as saying.

The North showed off its new missile just two days after the failure of a rocket launch purportedly intended to launch a satellite.

The United States and its allies said it was carrying out a thinly disguised ballistic missile test in breach of UN resolutions.

The Security Council, in a statement supported by China Monday, "strongly condemned" the launch. It ordered a tightening of existing sanctions and warned of new action if Pyongyang stages another nuclear or long-range missile test.

Clinton urges N.Korean leader to seize reform
Washington (AFP) April 18, 2012 - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday appealed to North Korea's young leader to embrace reforms, saying he had the chance to go down in history by ending the state's long isolation.

Three days after Kim Jong-Un delivered his first public speech, Clinton said it was too early to judge the intentions of the little-known leader in his late 20s but voiced guarded hope in light of his exposure to the outside world.

Asked in a CNN interview if she had a message for Kim, Clinton said: "As a young man with your future ahead of you, be the leader that can move North Korea into the 21st century.

"Educate your people, allow the talents of the North Korean people to be realized. Move away from a failed economic system that has kept so many of your people in starvation," she said.

"Be the kind of leader who will be remembered for the millennia as the person who moved North Korea on a path of reform. And you have the opportunity to do that," Clinton said.

Kim took over the world's only communist dynasty in December after the death of his father Kim Jong-Il. North Korea last week defied global pressure by going ahead with what it called a failed satellite launch, but which the United States believes was a disguised missile test.

Clinton, who was interviewed during a visit to Brussels, said she still hoped that Kim Jong-Un would not follow his father's path of "provocative behavior."

Noting that Kim Jong-Un has lived overseas, Clinton said that the new strongman "may have some hope that the conditions in North Korea can change."

"It's hard for us to tell right now -- is this the way it will be with this new leader or does he feel like he has to earn his own credibility in order to have a new path for North Korea?" Clinton said.

Kim Jong-Un is believed to have studied in Switzerland where he learned German and English, giving him at least an element of understanding of the West that is unusual for a North Korean.

The United States on February 29 reached an agreement with North Korea in which it would deliver food aid to the impoverished country, but Washington suspended the plan after Friday's launch.

North Korea has threatened retaliation over the international uproar, raising speculation that it will test a nuclear bomb for the third time.