US Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Monday he has told Pakistan that it would be faced with ‘‘consequences’’ if it had contacts with North Korea. He, however, added that he knew of nothing now that could trigger sanctions on Pakistan over allegations that it aided N Korea’s nuclear program.‘‘In my conversations with President Musharraf in recent months, I have made it clear that any sort of contact between Pakistan and N Korea would be considered improper, inappropriate and would have consequences,’’ Powell said. “He has assured me that there are no further contacts and he guarantees that there are no contacts of the kind that were referred to in the article.”Despite Pakistan’s reported role in Pyongyang’s program, there is no indication that either President Bush or the Republican-led Congress plan to impose sanctions or any other punishment on Pakistan, which is a key ally in the US-led war on terrorism in Afghanistan.Pakistan had strongly denied a recent New York Times report which said Pyongyang had provided Pakistan with missile parts for Musharraf to build missiles to allow delivery of his nuclear arsenal to ‘‘every strategic site in India.’’In return, NYT reported, Islamabad provided N Korea with designs for gas centrifuges and machinery needed to make highly enriched uranium for the country’s latest nuclear weapons project.
