"North Korea could resume flight testing at any time ... including longer range missiles capable of reaching the United States," he testified at a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing.

"We believe North Korea has active CW (chemical weapons) and BW (biological weapons) programs ... ready for use," said Goss, who took over as CIA director in September.

Goss spoke a week after North Korea publicly declared for the first time that it possessed nuclear weapons and that it was boycotting six-party talks designed to end its nuclear weapons programs.

The talks were aimed at denuclearizing the Korean peninsula and end a standoff with the United States, which in October 2002 accused the Stalinist state of operating a program based on highly enriched uranium, violating a 1994 arms control agreement.

Goss did not say whether North Korea's nuclear technology would allow it to launch a nuclear-tipped missile.

In 1998, North Korea launched a long-range ballistic test missile over key US ally Japan, becoming one of Tokyo's biggest security worries and prompting Tokyo to begin researching missile defence.

"North Korea continues to market its ballistic missile technology," Goss said Wednesday.

"We believe North Korea continues to pursue a uranium enrichment capability," he said, adding that it had drawn on assistance from Pakistani scientist A.Q. Khan illicit nuclear network, which has since reportedly been shut down.

"North Korea continues to develop, produce, deploy and sell ballistic missiles with increasing range of sophistication," Goss added.

On Tuesday, the commander-designate of US troops in the Asia-Pacific area Admiral William Fallon told the Senate the United States would maintain a strong military deterrence on the Korean peninsula.

"North Korea's continuing development and proliferation of WMD (weapons of mass destruction) and ballistic missile capabilities pose a serious threat to the US and our allies," he had said.

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