SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea has asked China whether it is the source of a sophisticated missile carrier displayed by North Korea during a military parade last weekend, a Seoul official said Friday.

Military experts have pointed to China as the probable supplier of the 16-wheel truck, but China has denied it. U.N. Security Council resolutions ban countries from supplying arms-related materials to North Korea.

North Korea used the vehicle to unveil a new long-range missile during Sunday’s celebrations marking the centennial of the birth of its late founder, Kim Il Sung. Two days earlier, North Korea launched a long-range rocket but said it failed to put a satellite in orbit.

Seoul was checking whether China, North Korea’s only major ally, was the missile carrier provider, a South Korean Foreign Ministry official said, speaking on condition of anonymity, citing the diplomatic sensitivity of the issue.

On Thursday, China denied any wrongdoing in connection with the vehicle’s appearance at the North Korean parade. Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin told a regular news conference that China is against the spread of weapons of mass destruction and carriers for such weapons.

U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said in a briefing that China has repeatedly said it’s complying fully with U.N. Security Council resolutions sanctioning North Korea. But Toner said he wasn’t aware whether China had given assurances on the missile carrier.

The carrier, also believed capable of launching missiles, was the biggest yet displayed by North Korea and gives the country the ability to transport long-range missiles around its territory, making them harder to locate and destroy.

Analyst Ted Parsons of IHS Jane’s Defence Weekly first raised the possibility that the missile-carrying vehicle came from China, citing similarities to Chinese design patterns.

North Korean space officials, meanwhile, said in a statement Thursday that they will keep pushing forward with their space development program. Washington says the North’s rocket launch was a cover for a missile test.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean officials say they will continue working with the U.S. to reduce oil imports from Iran after President Barack Obama greenlighted potential sanctions against countries that continue to buy Iranian oil.

South Korea is one of several major importers of Iranian oil that have not received exemptions from the U.S. sanctions.

Foreign Ministry officials in Seoul said Saturday that they expect to reach an agreement with Washington by late June on reducing oil imports from Iran. The officials declined to be named because discussions were still under way.

South Korea has already restricted financial dealings with more than 200 groups and individuals with suspected links to Iran’s nuclear program. Seoul relies on Iran for up to 10 percent of its oil.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea fired three short-range missiles this week in an apparent routine test of its technology, a South Korean official said Friday.

The North fired the KN-02 missiles, which are usually deployed against ground targets and have a range of about 75 miles (120 kilometers), into its eastern waters on Wednesday, a Defense Ministry official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of ministry policy.

Japan’s Sankei Shimbun newspaper first reported the tests.

Thousands of rescuers dug through thick mud for survivors of deadly landslides and flooding as South Korea’s military warned Thursday that buried land mines may have slid down mountains weakened by rain.

Massive rainfall in Seoul and surrounding areas since Tuesday has killed at least 47 people, and another four were missing. The rain stopped or decreased Thursday, but more was forecast until Friday morning.

At a mountain where a deadly slide hit Wednesday, digging for missing people was halted Thursday until the rain stopped because the Defense Ministry said mines placed there in the 1960s could have shifted. Soldiers with metal detectors were waiting to search for the mines, said Yoon Yong-sam, a spokesman for the air force, which planted the land mines around an air defense base on the mountain.