World IN BRIEF : ISRAEL : N. Korea Contacts on Arms Are Halted

Acceding to a U.S. request, Israel froze contacts with North Korea after a dispute on how best to curb the Communist country’s reported arms sales. In return, Israeli officials said they expect Washington to work on pressing North Korea to stop the reported sales. Israel wanted to increase its influence with Pyongyang to head off reported sales of missiles to Iran and Syria. But the United States sees isolation as the best method of dealing with North Korea, which has been blocking inspectors from two suspicious nuclear sites.